The Void
by Lyrium eidolon
Summary: When Toby was sent away by Sayer, he had no idea about where he was sent to. All he knew was that he was lost and alone in this place, cut off from his sister and having been thrown into a complete void. Rated M just in case.
1. Chapter 1: Arrival

**Author's note:**Got another story for you. For some reason, it struck me that, despite the weirdness about the Yugioh 5Ds English dub version of what happened to Toby, that in itself had the potential to turn into something very interesting. The reason... well, you'll see. In the meantime: Welcome to the Void.

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Chapter 1: Arrival

Sometimes I wonder, what would have happened if things were different. What if I was strong enough? What would have happened then? Would I, Toby Tredwell, still have my sister with me? Would I have made something positive of my Psychic Dueling powers like I aspired to do? Could I have avoided this?

How did this all begin? I was looking forward to being in the Arcadia Movement, along with the woman I looked up to. Why don't I remember her name? I just remembered torture. I remembered pain. I remembered shocks. I was told that I needed to take tests to judge my worthiness to join the movement. I was stripped, with only my pants on, as I lay in the bed and had various pads attached to me. It started as a tingling, but soon I tensed up and screamed from the pain. To feel those electrodes connected to you, to feel the current flowing, coursing through your body, to feel as though you were nothing but a circuit, more than seventy percent of your body being a conductor. No matter how much you protested, no matter how much you screamed, you were never going to get relief.

Arcadia continued with their 'testing'. I couldn't see a thing. I couldn't hear anything above my own screams, my desperate cries for release. My whole body was twitching, twisting, trying to shake off the cables that were connected to me. All the while, I was tense, every action quick, but momentary and brief. All the while, to feel such power stampeding through every neuron in my body; was it supposed to strengthen my own powers? Was the Arcadia Movement trying to boost my powers to a point where my cards could not only heal paper cuts, but also mend broken bones in a fraction of a second? Maybe this pain was a good thing? Good or otherwise, the pain was still pain, and that pain was still extremely torturous.

It started lessening at some point. I was told to 'pack my things' and get ready to leave. Apparently, I had been selected to go to a training school that would help boost my Psychic Powers. I wanted to tell my sister the good news: I had passed the tests! They were going to train my powers. They told me that they would take care of informing my relatives, and just told me to pack up, and to also remember my Duel Monsters Deck. Maybe I was going to go to a special Duel Academy.

The next morning arrived, and I saw a car by the Arcadia Movement. I was told that I needed to go with that car, and they would take me to a truly amazing place. I was so excited when I got in the car, I was shaking with anticipation. We drove for quite a while, outside New Domino City even. We kept driving into the countryside, where I saw whole acres of green land, and lots of trees. It was beautiful. I enjoyed the journey in that car.

We arrived at what seemed like a private air-field. The guards there and my escort started conversing, and soon I was transferred to the care of the former. They led me to a jet, and I couldn't contain myself. I just wanted to memorize everything, and enjoy this journey to its fullest. Boarding the jet, I was even more amazed, although I wished that there were windows so that I could see the view of the landscape below.

"Please may all passengers and crew go to their seats and strap on their seatbelts until further notice," the captain sounded over the intercom. I could see a sign light up that said 'Fasten Seat Belt" and I followed the instructions. So now I was flying. I could soon feel the plane move from underneath me, and I felt myself sinking further and further back into my seat as the journey continued. This was amazing, so why didn't the jet have windows? I would have really loved to see the outside. It felt just as though I was still rising. How high were we right now? Were we above the clouds? It just felt as though we were going higher and higher.

At some point, the Fasten Seat Belt sign got turned off and I stood up. A stewardess was waiting for me by my seat, and asked me for a food order. "Pork dumplings," I couldn't help myself. This trip seemed like a dream come true, and what better way to further better the day than with my favorite food? When she returned with my order, she had even brought me my favorite drink, saying that it was complementary. This was the best flight ever!

Just as I had finished my meal, the fasten seat belt sign came back on, so I once again complied. This was it, I was finally going to arrive. Soon enough, I felt some impact beneath me. We had landed, and the doors opened some time later. Something I found a bit strange was that, when I looked out of the exit, I was expecting to see a flight of stairs leading down to the ground, but instead I saw a tunnel. A long, white tunnel was in my sight. I was ushered out of the jet by the guards, with my bags in hand. Walking through these passageways was a little bit disturbing. I was expecting something a lot more vibrant. The guards took me into a lift, and soon I was on another floor, being pushed forward again. We were walking for so long that I was glad when I got a chance to sit down upon reaching the office of a "Warden Brutus Angustia".

"So, this is the most recent failure, eh?" this Warden spoke to the guards. Right now, I cannot remember him too well. "Welcome to the Void, kid!"

"Where am I?" I remember asking, frightened. Why did they say 'failure'?

"Like I said, kid, welcome to the Void."

"Didn't I pass the tests? Does my sister know about this? Where is this place?"

"We got a talkative one, I see. And he's annoying, too. It's going to be entertaining to watch him adapt to here. Get him a local flavor of the dress-code… then throw him to the Carnivore!"


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome to the Void

Chapter 2: Welcome to the Void

Some other guards dragged me out of the Warden's office, and took me to another elevator. One of them presented some clothes to me that looked like a black jump-suit. Once the elevator doors were open this time, I was hit on the back and stumbled forward. It felt as if the elevator was descending, and once it opened, I wanted to go somewhere else. The interior here, while still well-kept, was now a dull and depressing black color. There were very few lights, and there were barred areas, with people behind them. Prison cells, maybe? I kept getting beaten forward. Stumbling, I tried to walk down. BAM! Whatever it was, maybe a baton, propelled me forward and onto the floor. There were more cells, but eventually, amidst being hit again and again and having the scruff of my collar grabbed by the guards and being dragged along the floor, I came to rest in front of one cell. There was not much in the way of lighting, what light was present was illuminating the corridors.

The bars started parting from the one wall until there was a square opening in the cell. The guards hit me on the head again and thrust me forward. I kept stumbling for a few steps until tripping. I remember falling onto something strangely soft, and hearing what sounded like "Oof!" Wondering what I hit, as the light was too poor, I suddenly heard a large CLANG and turned to see that the bars had closed behind me. The guards were leaving me, but at least now I didn't have to endure any more hits by a blunt weapon. I was very dizzy, and I didn't know what was going on. Looking around, I tried to find a light switch, or a torch, really anything that would boost the light level around here. There was almost no light, just a black floor, black walls, black ceilings and lights in the corridor which were too dim to shine light into the cells. Seeing no other alternative, I tried to find my way to the wall, and once I was there, I started feeling for some sort of switch.

Suddenly, my whole body was thrust up against the wall; with my arms straightening out onto the surface and making me assume a spread-eagled position. There was suddenly pressure on my wrists, on my right knee and I could feel something pressed up hard against my back. I could also feel breath on the ear that wasn't planted straight against the wall.

"I thought I made it clear: no visitors!" a voice hissed. "And to think that you would have the gall to leap onto me during my sleep!"

"I'm sorry!" I didn't know what to say. What was happening? The pressure was causing me quite a bit of pain, especially of the sharp, stinging and crushing kinds. "I don't know what's going on. I was just thrown in here for some reason!"

"Sure you were. Do you really expect me to believe that? I laid down some rules _very_ clearly. Now, if I release you, get out of my room."

"You win! I'll do anything you want, just please let me go!"

Just then, the pressure pinning me to the wall let up, letting me fall to the ground. As soon as I managed to scramble to my feet, I ran to the bars. "Please, someone let me out of here!" I screamed into the dimly lit black corridors

Nothing happened.

"Anybody?"

There was silence.

"**Somebody, please help!**"

"Oh, for fuck's sake kid, shut up!" a voice rang out from a nearby cell. "The guards dump you in the cell that the Warden picks out for you."

"What? What's going on?"

"You just have the misfortune of being in the same company as the Carnivore, now shut up and enjoy!"

Just then, a switch clicked, and something came up from the area just by the bars in the cell, like an obstruction. Soon, the light from the corridors was completely blotted out, and a small lamp turned on just by the other end of the cell. The light was quite dim, but it was enough to illuminate a black bunk bed. I could suddenly make out some legs. These legs seemed quite long and smooth, yet I couldn't make out much else. Everything seemed like a black blur.

The legs straightened, and I could see more features as what must have been the 'Carnivore' stood up. I soon saw this person run straight up towards me and pin me against the new barrier with just one hand on my upper chest. Fingers started touching my face, motioning me to look to my left and my right. "So, that bastard has dumped someone new on me?" this person spoke.

"Where am I? What is going on here?" I tried asking. The pressure had been released, and I was really surprised that I was still standing. My legs were threatening to give out on me at any moment. That was when an overhead light turned on, illuminating the cell much better than what the lamp did. I finally got to see what the 'Carnivore' looked like: a girl, about two to three feet taller than me, with long slender arms and legs, straight shoulder length black hair and emerald-green eyes. She was wearing a black short-sleeved shirt and a short black skirt

"You're in the Void. I have to say, you are very interesting, little boy. I was wondering what was going on when you came in. So, judging by your failure to abide by my rules, you are new here?"

"Yes. What is happening?"

"Were you at the Arcadia Movement before this?"

"Yes."

"Well, the Void is where they send failures. So welcome to your new home, but don't get too comfortable; I won't hesitate to correct you if you fall out of line."

"Where are we?"

"Slow down with the questions, my generosity only goes so far. Even I don't know where we are, and I've been here for seven years."

"By the way, my name is Toby T-"

"Right now, I couldn't give a damn about your name. I'm tired, I have just been woken up rudely and I want to get back to sleep. I suggest you climb on the top bunk and get comfy before the light goes out."

"What about my things?"

"Leave them in a corner if you are worried. I have secured the cell, so nobody can enter without waking us up. You have about fifteen seconds to get ready before I turn off the light."

Not wanting to take chances, I tried to re-collect my possessions and did exactly what she said. My bags were in the corner of the cell by the bed, and now I just had to climb onto the top bunk of the bed. Due to the ladder there, that wasn't difficult, but just as I lay down, the lights turned off completely. The darkness was disconcerting. What was this place? Why was it completely black? Why were there cells? Who was this 'Carnivore'? Why was she called a Carnivore?

My sister, does she know where I am? Why did the Arcadia Movement lie to me? Did they even contact her? Could _I_ even contact her? What was this 'Void' place that I was in? Where was I? Why was everyone so unfriendly? I found myself clinging onto the pillow, crying into it. These people, this place… why did this have to happen? Everything was going so well, now it looked like I'd been thrust into prison! I didn't belong there!

"Get up already!" I heard a voice shout out of nowhere all of a sudden. The light had come on, and I had no idea how I could have missed its turning on unless… did I actually sleep?

"What's going on?" I tried to ask. The figure that I was talking to was coming into view, and I began recognizing her as the girl from yesterday; only now she was in a black jumpsuit.

"I've got to play 'Unpaid Tour Guide' with you, so hurry up and get dressed!"

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing now?"

"Well, when outside of your cell, you are required to wear what they give you under pain of beatings! God damn it, you are bothersome!"

"But where will I change? There's no changing room here!"

"Deal with it. The closest thing we've got is the entrance shutter, and while there is a bathroom here, it is too small. If it bothers you that much, I guess I can look away."

Sure enough, she did look away and allowed me to get changed in peace when I got down from the bed. After that, she got out what appeared to be a Duel Monsters Card from a nearby drawer, and slid it into a slot in the wall by the cell door, after which the door opened and she slid the card down her shirt.

Grabbing my wrist and maintaining a vice-like grip, she took me through the Cell Block. She also showed me the nearest elevator, taking me to a gymnasium, an indoor garden, a Duel Arena and a few other very large rooms. The tour took what seemed like an hour, but as soon as she finished showing me a large food court, she dragged me back to our cell and opened the same way as she did on the inside: the card that she had hidden under her shirt.

"What's going on?" I wondered. "Surely there's more?"

"Yeah, but for one thing we ran out of time. I didn't want anyone to think that I had left my cell for too long," she sighed. "Besides, you have seen all of the areas that you need to see at present, and I don't want you getting ideas."

"You sound irritated. Is something wrong?"

"Well, for one thing, _somebody_ is invading my personal space!"

"I'm sorry. I don't know what else to do. How do I move out of here? Where do I even go? Besides, you woke _me_ up. If I'm really bothering you, why did you show me around?"

"You're usually left to your own devices here unless they announce otherwise, and let me just say that asking for directions is something you don't want to do here. As for why I took the trouble… well, at least now you know the basic layout of where to go. So, hopefully, I'll need earplugs slightly less of the time."

"We still haven't had a chance to introduce ourselves. I am Toby Tredwell."

"Yay, you have a name. So what?"

"I want to get to know you. What's yours?"

"Just call me Carnivore like everyone else does if it bothers you that much."

"Carnivore just sounds wrong. Isn't there something else I can call you by?"

"Hey! New kid!" a guard spoke from outside the cell. "Get over here, gotta take you to security."

"So you're saying that he gets to waltz in here whenever he damn well pleases?" Carnivore boomed.

"Get used to it, girlie." With that, the guard opened my cell and took me to another elevator. Getting on it, I noticed that this elevator was like the one that took me from the Warden's office to the cell block. Getting off it, I noticed that this area was a much brighter color than the cell blocks. They stood me in front of a white wall, told me to smile and had a device flash in my eyes. Soon, I was presented with a card similar to Carnivore's, with my picture, and a bar-code directly beneath it where a monster description would have been.

"Congrats, kid. Now you can enter or exit certain areas as long as you got that keycard." my escort spoke.

"Where will I be able to go?"

"Just about anywhere that requires a keycard. However, that there is low level access. You can only enter or exit your own cell, and you can't use the VIP lifts."

"Which ones are those?"

"The brighter ones, dumbass. Now that you've got your keycard, I can say this properly. Welcome to the Void."


	3. Chapter 3: The Beast

Chapter 3: The Beast

My very own keycard. Under normal circumstances, this was something to celebrate, but I hated this place. My escort just took me up to the elevator, took me back to the cell block and let me loose. I vaguely remembered the path back to my own cell. However, just as I arrived, there was someone already there. I couldn't tell who it was, as the lighting throughout the corridors was quite dim

"You cheeky little son of a bitch," I heard a male voice. "You know what I'd give to be with the Carnivore! Yet you waltz in and claim her as your own!"

"What do you mean 'claim'?" I asked him. As far as I was concerned, I didn't 'claim' anyone.

"Newbie or not, nobody ever talks down to the Beast! Get in and get your deck!"

"Are we going to Duel?"

"Isn't that obvious? You will learn never to mess with the Beast! Carnivore, free ticket to watch me beat this little brat's head in!"

"Beat it, animal," I heard Carnivore's voice state as I retrieved my Deck and Duel Disk

"Awww, come on. Free offer to watch me finally get this irritant out of your way."

"You never learn, Beast. Irritants have a way of getting under your skin."

This 'Beast' dragged me away from my cell soon after and took me to an elevator. This particular one had a black slot, into which he inserted his keycard. When the journey finally stopped, we were in a Duel Arena, with me in the blue corner and him in the red.

"Okay, boy, now you're going to experience the consequences of messing with the Beast!" he roared, activating his Duel Disk.

"I'm not messing with anyone!" I shouted as I activated my own Disk. "You approached _me_! Let's Duel!"

He started, summoning Exarion Universe (1800/1900), playing Double Summon to Normal Summon again and summoning Enraged Battle Ox (1700/1000). He ended his turn there, unable to attack me as it was his first turn.

I drew, and while my hand wasn't spectacular, I was sure it would do. First, I played my Pot of Greed for two cards, after which I placed five cards face-down and summoned my Witch of the Black Forest (1100/1200) in Attack mode. I had set my snare, now I just had to see if he would fall into it.

After he drew, he summoned Vorse Raider (1900/1200), played a second Double Summon and summoned Gene-Warped Warwolf (2000/100). It was at that point that he decided to attack with the Warwolf, targeting my Witch of the Black Forest and destroying it. This also allowed me to add a monster with 1500 or less Defense from my Deck to my Hand. Good, he had stepped directly into my trap. I revealed my Flat Level 4, announcing that since a monster was destroyed, we both could summon one Level 4 monster from our Decks. I chose my Plasma Eel (500/1200) while he chose Indomitable Fighter Lei Lei (2300/0). He then attacked my Plasma Eel with the new monster, which was when I activated my Staunch Defender trap, forcing all of his monsters to attack that target. In total, I took 7200 damage, enough to take off my 3100 remaining points and knock me out of the game… had that not been part of my plan.

It was then that I activated Rainbow Life, discarding the monster I picked up from my Witch, negating all that damage and adding that to my original Life Point total, putting me on… what was it… oh yes, 10300 Life Points. What's more: my Plasma Eel couldn't be destroyed by battle, so it stayed. I noticed just then that I felt somewhat weakened. At that point, I revealed Solemn Wishes, allowing me to gain 500 Life Points with each draw.

I drew, and gained 500 Life Points from Solemn Wishes to come to 10800, and a further 200 points to come to 1100 from the Marie the Fallen One in my Graveyard. From there, I activated Card of Sanctity, allowing both of us to draw until we had six cards. My second card was Guardian Treasure, forcing me to discard my hand to draw two cards and earn the right to draw an extra card every Draw Phase. That was when I activated my Disgraceful Charity, returning the discarded cards to my hand. I saw a possible victory plan forming: I played my Burning Land, allowing me to destroy a Field Spell (which sadly didn't matter at this stage) and inflict 500 points of damage to each player during his Standby phase. My Soul Charge followed, summoning my Witch of the Black Forest (1100/1200) and Marie the Fallen One (1700/1200) in Attack mode at the cost of 500 Life Points each, bringing me to 10000. From there, my Plasma Eel went into Defense mode, after which I placed two cards face-down and ended my turn.

"High Life Points ain't gonna save you from the Beast!" my opponent growled as he drew. Just then, his Life Points got knocked down to 3500 from Burning Land. From there, he sacrificed his Vorse Raider and Enraged Battle Ox to summon Mystical Knight of Jackal (2700/1200), activated his Obedience to switch my Plasma Eel into Attack mode and attacked it with his Gene-Warped Warwolf. But that was when my Nightmare Mirror activated, negating the Attack and dealing 1000 damage to him to get him down to 2500. Now, he couldn't attack with his Indomitable Warrior, as it had been switched into Defense mode by its own effect last turn and couldn't change until the end of his current turn. He had only two monsters left. Would he seal his own doom?

He decided to attack my now Attack mode Plasma Eel with his Mystical Knight of Jackal, which suited me just fine. My other face-down required me to select a monster, and I had selected his Vorse Raider. Now, I revealed Blast Held by a Tribute. Since he attacked with a monster Tribute Summoned by using the selected monster as a Tribute, I could activate this card to assuredly destroy the monster and inflict damage to his Life Points… equal to the attacking monster's Attack points, which meant that he took 200 points too many of damage.

"Aaaah!" he screamed, and the aftermath of the monster explosion left him somewhat singed. I personally had felt as if I took a bit of a shockwave to my chest, but I decided to return to my cell. Going to the elevator, I tried to remember my cell block number, as there were cell blocks one through sixteen. While I was standing inside, I started to worry: I couldn't remember my cell block number. Judging from what the Carnivore told me, asking for help here was a very bad idea, and this 'Beast' surely wouldn't help me; his pride was wounded.

Was I really all alone in this terrible place? The interior of this black elevator, with only one light, was doing little to help my mood, and tears quickly started flooding my eyes. I couldn't remember where my cell block was; any one of the cell blocks could have been mine. There was nothing I could do, so I just assumed the fetal position on the floor of the elevator. I was completely friendless and powerless, especially in this confining, cube-like black space with only one light, which is only making me want to break down more. I could just feel; absolutely nobody was going to come, and that was when I completely lost it, with tears streaming out and my voice sobbing. I hadn't made any friends among the other people here, in fact if anything I just made _enemies_. Judging from the way she acted towards me, I highly doubted that the Carnivore would come to help me; she might even be relishing in her solitude.

I didn't know what else to do, but I decided that I had to do something. Inserting my keycard into the elevator slot, a screen came up displaying the various locations. I should have remembered Carnivore doing this, so maybe if I see which area she clicked on, I could click on the same area. Just then, the elevator started moving of its own accord, and I felt myself going down. From Duel Arena 3, to Duel Arena 2, to Duel Arena 1, then Cellblock 16, Cellblock 15, Cellblock 14, Cellblock 13, Cellblock 12, Cellblock 11, Cellblock 10, Cellblock 9, Cellblock 8, Cellblock 7. The lift stopped at Cellblock 6 and opened to reveal a silhouette of a woman with long hair. I couldn't make out exact features due to the poor lighting though.

"Oooh, what have we here?" she purred. I could just tell that this wasn't Carnivore, even though I felt a strong grip on my wrist. "I call down an elevator and it brings such a gorgeous catch?"

"Sorry, miss, but I'm-aaaah!" I found myself screaming as I got yanked forward, landing right on her chest.

"Exquisite, I know." Her hand was now resting on the back of my head, making sure it didn't move.

"Mmmm, mcphmmhm mmmp!" I found myself unable to speak properly; it was as if my entire face was pressed against something.

"What? Oh, sorry, I tend to get a little excited sometimes. You were saying?" Her hand had relaxed its grip, allowing my head (which apparently was where I thought it was, in her chest) to retract a bit and speak properly.

"I said I was actually lost."

"Lost, eh? What Cellblock are you from?"

"I can't remember."

"Do you have a cellmate? I'm sure I can use that to get you back home. I know just about everyone here."

"All I know is that she is called a carnivore."

"Carnivore, eh? So you're with _the_ Carnivore. Take it from someone who's known her for a few years; she isn't exactly the most sociable of people."

"Yeah, I know. I keep trying to talk to her, but it feels like I'm just getting brushed aside. It's like I'm completely alone in here!"

"In that case, want to come back to my place? I don't have much in the way of cellmates, so space isn't exactly lacking if you know what I mean."

My heart started to rise. Was I finally going to make a friend in this godforsaken place?


	4. Chapter 4: A kind heart?

Chapter 4: A kind heart?

The woman held her hand out to me. I could barely see it in the dim lighting, but it was definitely there, and although I should probably have been suspicious of the instant offer of help, I very much liked the idea of having someone to share my feelings with. Taking her hand, I was led not too far from the lifts, but to the end of one of the corridors of this dull black labyrinth.

"Welcome to my home, kid," the woman spoke after sealing the cell and turning on the brighter lights, then standing by her bunk bed. I could now see her features a bit more clearly, from her shoulder-length dark green hair, to her wide blue eyes, to, dare I say, a rather prominent chest (When you're a boy in your early teens, you notice that stuff, though I try not to draw attention to that). "By the way, what's your name?"

"Toby. Toby Tredwell. You?" I responded. The way she asked the question seemed so… caring, that not to reply immediately would have sounded insulting.

"Rebecca Scarlet. So you say you're with the Carnivore?"

"Yes. Any idea what her real name is?"

"No clue. Nobody has any idea as to her real name could be. Probably better that way."

"Okay."

"By the way, you can come closer." Rebecca must have noticed that I was still standing by the cell edge.

"You sure, Miss Scarlet?"

"Rebecca is fine. And yes, I'm sure. Don't worry, I'm not gonna bite."

Slowly… ever so slowly, did I make my way towards Rebecca. For some reason, probably due to my receptions from the Carnivore and the Beast, I felt ready to turn tail and run. I was a quarter of the way there, but so far, Rebecca didn't make any aggressive movements. Still apprehensive, I didn't want to risk increasing my movement speed in case of something bad happening, so I maintained my go-slow action.

I was halfway towards Rebecca when she decided to close the gap of her own accord, reaching me in a second. Noticing her speed, my reflexes took over and I found myself turning towards the sealed cell bar area with my other foot ready to take a stride.

"Jumpy, aren't we?" she spoke, pulling me onto her body. "I told you, I won't bite. You must have been shaken quite a bit for you to be this skittish."

"It's this place, Rebecca!" I couldn't help myself. Tears were threatening to spill out as Rebecca guided me to the bunk bed. "I think the Arcadia Movement lied to me! I just want to go home, away from this place and back to somewhere where you can see the sky! I want to go back to my sister. Where exactly are we anyway?"

"Nobody knows. But why did you say Arcadia lied to you?"

"They told me to pack my possessions as I was leaving. I thought I was going to a special Duel Academy. They even promised to inform my sister!"

"Ah yes. Arcadia has never been known to play messenger. Sadly, your sister is probably in the dark. Lie down."

"Thanks, Rebecca. I could actually do with a bit of sleep after everything that's happened today." I sighed as I lay on the bottom bunk mattress. The tour, the picture taking and especially the Duel had left me quite exhausted. Even though the light was on, I still felt my eyes closing. The mattress was comfortable, the pillows doubly so, and there was this comforting aroma about the bed.

Some time later, I found myself awake to see Rebecca lying in the middle of the cell almost completely naked. The only things she had on were a bra and panties, along with a pair of sunglasses. She seemed to be lying directly underneath the light, even after she had apparently noticed my movement due to the fact that she turned to look at me. "Morning, Toby!" she spoke, where I hurriedly tried to look away. "Don't worry, you can look. I'm just sun-tanning a bit."

"Sun-tanning?" I wondered. Surely the light wasn't sufficient to allow for that?

"Yeah. I used to love it back in New Domino. I would go to the beach and just sun-bathe, with the cool ocean air blowing on me. Sure, there's no beach here, wherever this is, but that doesn't mean to say you can't go to one."

"I suppose not. Isn't this a bit embarrassing, though?"

"What?"

"Sun-bathing when someone else is in the cell."

"Nah. People used to look at me all the time on the New Domino beaches, I didn't really mind at all. Besides…" she got up and started walking towards me. I couldn't help but get a little nervous. "…attention and companionship are rare commodities in the Void, and what's more, that black clothing we have to wear makes me sick. There are times when I just need to be out of it and relaxing on a small sand dune on a beach somewhere. I mean it. Deluding myself that I'm on a beach instead of a cube-shaped jail cell only comforts me up to a point. I want to feel the real thing: from the breeze, the sand that you can feel through the towel, the sun shining down on you and the waves from the water."

"I suppose you are right there. Do you mind if I ask how long you have been here?"

"Five years, give or take. By the way, could you shift up a bit?" She was now right by the bed. Once I shifted to the side, she lay down directly beside me.

"Is this really okay? I think we're struggling for space." I wondered. We were practically pressed up against each other, and I was finding it extremely unnerving, yet enjoyable at the same time, partly due to sensual reasons as well.

"You worry too much, Toby. Besides, I haven't been able to share anyone with anything for a long time now. It's been so lonely here."

"I guess that's true. You're the first person to extend a hand of friendship to me; everyone else just shoves me up against a wall or accuses me of stealing the Carnivore."

"That is why we need to savor every moment together. According to the clock on my wall, you have about thirty minutes before you need to be back in your own cell. So let us just enjoy this moment of intimacy that we have before I am left alone and you are in danger of getting your head bitten off, figuratively speaking of course."

"Speaking of which, where is my cell?"

"Notice how each of the cells are labeled. Mine is 06C20."

"06C20?"

"The first number, 06, designates which Cellblock it is in. The letter specifies the row, each row starting from the row of black lifts from A until J. The second two-digit number is which column it is in; starting from the column of white VIP lifts from 01 through 20. It's actually on your keycard as well."

"Can I check now?"

"No. I told you just now, we need to savor this moment. Besides, to be quite honest, were it up to me, I'd never let you go."

"What?" Fear started to rise in me as she said those words.

"Like I said, you worry too much. I didn't mean to say that I'd detain you within this cell for the rest of your days, but actually that I'd want to be by your side."

The next twenty minutes were actually quite pleasant. Rebecca and I lay together, just talking mainly, and when it came time for me to leave, she let me go without any trouble, but with a wish to see me again. Looking at my keycard, I could see in the bottom-right hand corner "TOBY TREDWELL 07J19". So the first was my Cellblock, which led me to direct the lift to Cellblock 7. Then, I had to walk all the way to the end of the corridor once I got out the lift. From there, it was cell 19. I eventually found it, amid the dim lighting, and it also said "Cell 07J19" above the scanner.

My keycard successfully opened the cell, and I could see a silhouette waiting for me in the darkness of the dimly lit room. Closing the cell door, I started hearing machinery. The partition began rising up from the ground and sealed off the cell in a matter of seconds.

"Took you long enough," I could hear Carnivore state, "…not that I'm complaining, but Duels don't usually take this long to conclude."

"Well, thanks for your concern. I suppose you think the Beast won."

"He's just an animal. I'd be really surprised if he did. Was the Duel that long?"

"No. I was just lost. I didn't know where we were, and besides, I'm probably going to leave you alone for a lot longer."

"How so? You don't have anything to do except laze around in this cell until your Leniency Week has expired."

"Leniency Week?"

"They didn't explain to you, eh? I'm not surprised. Every new failure gets a one week grace period before they are required to take 'lessons'. You have six days left. How do you figure leaving me alone for all that time?"

"Well, I have got a friend!"

"Fantastic. Go bother him then. What's his Cell number?"

"Well, for one thing, _she_ hasn't got a cell phone as far as I am aware."

"_Cell_ number, moron!"

"06C20!"

"Oh… you poor fool…"

* * *

**End note:** I hope everyone's enjoying thus far. This story is probably going to get the majority of what attention I can spare this month, so future updates should come soon.


	5. Chapter 5: Food for thought

Chapter 5: Food for thought

I didn't like Carnivore's tone when I mentioned Rebecca's Cell Number. What did she mean by 'poor fool'? Right then, though, I climbed into my own bed, ready to sleep and be rid of that day. The next morning, I could visit Rebecca again. Maybe I could ask why Carnivore was so against me being friends with her. Yet… there was something about her words that intrigued me.

"Why did you call me that?" I found myself asking her.

"If you must know, that person is the one who taught me that there is no such thing as a friend in the Void," I heard her state, venom evident in her voice.

"How did she do that?"

"Given enough time, she'll teach you, in exactly the same way she taught me."

"But she seemed nice enough."

"Naïve child. Do you really believe you can make any friends in this place?"

"There have got to be one or two people."

"Well, I shall give you one piece of advice: the sooner you get rid of that misguided notion, the sooner you'll stop getting your heart re-broken."

Something struck me at that point. "Did that happen to you?"

"That's private, brat! Suffice to say that I won't make that mistake again. Not with her, not with you!"

"You must get lonely, though."

"Who cares? Besides, the only reason that I told you to stay away from that notion of 'friendship' was because I could see how fragile you are, and if I have to sit through agonized bawling again I'll throw you out myself."

There was something about her words that just didn't sit right with me. A vague idea had occurred to me as to why she kept pushing me away, but I'd have to ask Rebecca about something first.

As soon as I woke up the next morning, I saw that the partition that was usually raised by Carnivore was lowered. Walking to the cell edge, I suddenly felt a strong pain in my stomach, from which emitted a growl. "That's the longest period of time between someone arriving here and noticing his hunger," Carnivore's voice rang out.

"That's usually what happens when something gets in the way," I tried to sound relaxed, but it was kinda hard when you're in a presence of someone who can flatten you against the wall. "Just wish I could remember where that food court was."

"I'm going there myself, so I suppose I can bring you with. I only have one rule; no fraternizing with me while I'm eating."

"How is the food here?"

"It's edible at the very least, now come on," she ordered, grabbing my hand and opening the cell door. Once we got to the elevator, she motioned me to use my own keycard, and when we were inside, she had me manually select a destination. Looking, I eventually found the food court and clicked that button. "What food do they have?" I plucked up the courage to ask a minute later.

"Just about everything you could want, be you a vegetarian, meat-eater, they have quite a selection," she replied. Anticipation started rising in me until… "I never said that it's good quality, though, so brace yourself."

With the elevator opening, I could finally see the food-court. The lighting was much better, although the floors, walls and ceiling were still a pure black color. I saw various openings on one side, with people serving out food on plastic trays and signs in white above each opening detailing the food type. Some included 'FISH', 'BREAD' and 'FRUITS/VEGETABLES'. I also saw rows and rows of square tables, with other people in black jumpsuits sitting down to what must have been breakfast. Just then I was dragged by Carnivore towards one window with the sign 'MEAT' above it. "You have to create your own food here. Just go to the various stalls and get the ingredients. That's the only thing that they provide aside from maybe some heating," Carnivore spoke again.

"What do you mean?" I had to ask. It just seemed too illogical. We arrived just as I finished voicing my question, and Carnivore had her attention focused on the vendor.

"Get me some grilled pork ribs," she spoke to the meat vendor.

"Alright. Oy, people, got an order for grilled pork ribs!" he shouted into the stall. "By the way, what's the kid doing by you, Carnivore-chan?"

"Don't ask. He's new around here."

"Welcome to the Void, kid! Does he have a Title yet?"

"He's only three days into his Leniency Week."

"Was he the kid that beat the Beast? I thought I heard something about a newcomer wiping the floor with him. What's even stranger; the victor didn't declare one attack."

"Interesting. That is bound to attract some attention."

"Yeah, from what I've heard, the Queen, the Bombardier, the Succubus and the Dancer have got an ear to the ground for this newcomer."

"Four of the power-players already, eh? This is actually getting interesting. Right now, though, I can only see that working with the Succubus."

"Here are your ribs, Carnivore-chan. Eat up!" the vendor said, producing a tray of ribs. Taking them, Carnivore just motioned me to look for what I wanted to eat. Not seeing where they might have had dumplings, I just decided to see what the people at the 'BREAD' section handed out. I can't exactly remember what all there was, but some articles included bread slices, hot-dog rolls and hamburger rolls. Not really caring about what exactly I had, since I was starving at the time, I just walked away with five hot-dog rolls on a plastic tray and looked for any drinks vendors. The only ones I found were 'DRINKS – CARBONATED', 'DRINKS – CAFFEINATED', 'DRINKS – SPORTS' and a few others, but there weren't very many stalls that catered for those needs, so I just got myself a cup of black coffee and started looking for Carnivore. Although I tried looking where she had left after the meat vendor, I couldn't find her. Eventually, I gave up and sat at a table on my own, just choosing to have my coffee and rolls before my hunger got the best of me.

I was into my third bread roll when I noticed something: the rolls were actually quite stale. The coffee also wasn't very appetizing; I actually found myself wanting to spit it back out again. However, I suppose that Carnivore did warn me about quantity over quality, so I just forced myself to tough it out. The stale rolls were, however, much easier to ingest, having taken me about twenty-five minutes to finish. The coffee was another story, as in an hour, I had only drained about one quarter of the cup.

"Having trouble there, Toby?" Rebecca's voice spoke. Turning to see her, I noticed her in the standard-issue black jumpsuit, holding a tray of pasta.

"Morning, Rebecca," I replied to her as she sat down beside me. "I can't help but feel that I've got the wrong thing here."

"Why?"

"This is supposed to be coffee, yet it tastes like anything but. Have I got it wrong?"

"Probably not. These food vendors supply you with exactly what you want, provided you don't ask for something too complex."

"Like what?"

"See my pasta here? I just asked for pasta at the relevant vendor and they provided it to me. Had I asked for various sauces, a side order of chips, soft soda drink or even tried to add extensive modifications to that, then there would have been a problem, and they would have just given me the basic pasta and told me to go to the other vendors. They're actually sort of rude unless you can get on first-name terms with them."

"I think I agree with you, although Rebecca… can I ask you something?"

"Shoot, Toby."

"I've heard other titles today. Titles like 'Bombardier', 'Succubus', 'Queen', 'Beast' and 'Dancer'. What do these titles mean?"

"Ah, yes, the Duel Title. Gain enough notoriety through Duels, and people generally start calling themselves names. The Beast, for example, is known for his ruthless assaults and Beast-Warrior-type monsters, hence 'the Beast'. Come to think of it, I actually heard that he lost a Duel against a newcomer that didn't even launch one attack."

"Yeah, well… that's me."

"Interesting. The Beast has an admirer in the same Cellblock as me, so that's how I heard. He kept roaring and crying all the way to his Cell, judging from what I heard. While he was defeated before this, it would take something massive to send him howling like that."

"How far away is he?"

"Beastie is 08D14. He is usually regarded as strong for his relentless attacks at the first opportunity, being second only to the Carnivore."

"How strong is the Carnivore, Rebecca?"

"She hasn't lost many Duels at all, although unlike the Beast, she's never really taken to participating in any Wars. The only times she's ever really Dueled were when people have pissed her off, and in those times she's been exceedingly brutal, especially with her Psychic Powers."

"Well, well, well, we meet again, Succubus!" Carnivore's voice rang out.


	6. Chapter 6: Wounded Pride

Chapter 6: Wounded Pride

"Carnivore! What are you doing here?" Rebecca asked in shock.

"What about you, Succubus?" Carnivore retorted. "Why are you spending so much time with him? Have you really sunk that low?"

"Shut up! I know you, I know that he will experience nothing but suffering in your presence! Can't you see he's lonely?"

"I've been fine alone! If I can make an effort to prevent people fucking with my life, then so can he!"

"He isn't you, Carnivore! Not all of us are content with cutting ourselves off with the rest of the world!"

"Have you forgotten, Succubus? This is the Void. We are _already_ cut off from the world. Why are you trying to seduce the newcomer?"

"Okay, that was uncalled for! Just because I approach people doesn't mean I'm going to seduce them. Besides, he's still very young!"

At that point, the shouting and counter-shouting got too much for me, forcing me to abandon my cup of black vile-tasting liquid and run towards the lifts.

"You! Over there!" I heard a girl's voice shout.

"Me?" I asked, turning to see a blonde girl only slightly taller than me.

"Yes, you! Were you the one who hurt the Beast?"

"He challenged me, accusing me of stuff I didn't do."

"I don't believe you could have won in a Duel against him! You had to have cheated! I, Sky Fairy, hereby challenge you to a Duel!"

Seeing no other choice, I let this girl take me to one of the Duel Arenas, whereupon we began our Duel, with her going first as the challenger. She Summoned Victoria (1800/1500) and played Double Summon to summon another Victoria. Their abilities of not being able to select another monster as an attack target meant that I was now in an attack lock.

In my turn, I just placed four cards face-down. Sky Fairy, on her next turn, summoned Bountiful Artemis (1600/1700) and sacrificed it to summon Tethys, Goddess of Light (2400/1800). After that came a Pot of Greed, whereupon Tethys' ability activated: since Sky Fairy drew a Fairy-type monster, she could reveal it to draw one more card, revealing Gellenduo (1700/0) and drawing again, this time summoning Watapon (200/300) due to it being drawn due to a card effect. She then played Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until holding six cards, whereupon I revealed my Solemn Wishes, allowing me to gain 500 Life Points each time I drew a card (thus increasing my Life Points to 4500). After that, she used another Double Summon to summon Gellenduo to the field. Both of the new low-level monsters were sacrificed: Watapon was tributed to summon Airknight Parshath (1900/1400) and Gellenduo, who could count for two Tributes when summoning Fairies, was tributed to summon Archlord Kristya (2800/2300). Now, with this monster in play, neither player could Special Summon.

Sky Fairy attacked with Archlord Kristya, during which I revealed Draining Shield, negating the attack and gaining 2800 Life Points to come to 7300. Her Tethys, Goddess of Light then attacked, but I revealed Nightmare Wheel, choosing it and stopping it from attacking or changing its Battle Position. What was more, she'd be taking 500 Damage during each of my Standby Phases as long as the monster wasn't removed from the field. She tried to follow through with Airknight Parshath, but that was when I revealed Narrow Corridor, stopping her from attacking with more than two monsters during the Battle Phase. Reluctantly, she ended her turn.

Drawing, my Life Points increased to 7800. I played my Nibelung's Treasure, allowing me to select a Spell Card and play it on my opponent's side of the Field. I chose Nibelung's Ring and equipped it to her Archlord Kristya, after which the Treasure made me draw 5 cards. After that came Guardian Treasure, discarding five cards to draw two and draw one extra every Draw phase. I now had seven cards in my hand. From there, I played Burning Land, which destroyed any Field Spell and forced us to take damage during our Standby phases. All of my Spell/Trap card zones were full at this point.

When her Draw Phase came, due to Nibelung's Ring, Sky Fairy drew two cards, discarded one of them because it was a monster, then took damage from Burning Land to come to 3500. She activated Double Cyclone to destroy the Nibelung's Ring on her side of the Field and the Nightmare Wheel on my side. From there, she launched an attack with her Airknight Parshath, but I triggered Rescuer from the Grave from my Graveyard, removing 5 cards there from play to negate the attack. During my turn, my Life Points remained as they were, my Solemn Wishes being negated by Burning Land. I felt like I needed a new plan: at this rate, I was going to need to stall for a lot of time to defeat her. That was why I played Giant Trunade, returning all Spell and Trap Cards on the field back to our hands. She didn't get anything back, I got my Guardian Treasure, Solemn Wishes, Burning Land and Narrow Corridor. She had no face-down cards on her field, so another plan occurred to me. I placed two cards face-down and activated my Dark Hole, destroying all of her monsters. She now had nine monsters in her Graveyard, so I played my Purity of the Cemetery Spell Card, and I re-set my Solemn Wishes Trap Card and replayed my Burning Land Spell Card.

As soon as Sky Fairy began her turn, she took 1400 points of damage to come to 2100. The first 900 points of damage she took was due to Purity of the Cemetery dealing 100 points of damage for each Monster in her Graveyard, while the remaining 500 came from Burning Land. Firstly, she used Monster Reborn to bring back a Victoria, and then used a Spell Reproduction to discard two spells and retrieve one, playing Monster Reborn again to revive Tethys, Goddess of Light. From there, a second Monster Reborn revived Airknight Parshath, and after that she played Premature Burial, paying 800 Life Points to bring back Archlord Kristya. With her Life Points now on 1300, she now had monsters whose total Attack equaled 7900… enough to wipe me out. She attacked with her Archlord Kristya, but that was when I revealed Nightmare Mirror, negating the attack and dealing 1000 points of damage to her, also forcing me to discard a card. With only 300 Life Points left and five monsters in her Graveyard, I activated my other face-down: Cemetery Bomb, which dealt her 100 points of damage for each monster in her Graveyard.

"No, no, no, no, no!" she shouted as her Life Points hit 0. "How could I have suffered such a humiliating defeat?"

"How was that humiliating?" I asked. I didn't know why she was calling it humiliating.

"You didn't launch one attack! You didn't even summon a single Monster! You just sat back and dragged my Life Points down like I was nothing!"

"That, Fairy-chan…" Rebecca's voice suddenly sounded, "…seems more like a unique dueling style than humiliation."

"When did you get here, Succubus?"

"Around the time when your opponent played Purity of the Cemetery. Now take a look at that card and tell me what it does."

"Well, I take 100 points of damage for each Monster in my Graveyard, but if there is a Monster in his Graveyard, the card is destroyed. But what has that got to do with him not summoning one?"

"Just have a hard think about it."

With that, Sky Fairy ran off sulking and Rebecca walked straight up to me, stopping about one centimeter short of walking into me. "You know," she began, "…I've seen a lot of Dueling styles since coming to the Void, but I have to say, I really like what I've seen of yours."

"Really, Rebecca?" I gasped in wonder. She was the first person to ever compliment my Dueling style.

"Yeah, quite a few Dueling styles, mine included, involve Summoning of Monsters. Although I've seen some styles that rely heavily on Spell or Trap cards, this is the first one I've seen that foregoes Monsters altogether. I have to say, that, like my own, is a particularly interesting concept."

"Thanks. That is the first good thing that has been said about my play style. Other opinions usually focus on the words 'weak', 'cowardly' and the like. Speaking of which, what is your play style like, Rebecca?"

"That, my young friend, is a s-e-c-r-e-t."

"Aw. What about Carnivore, what is her play style? Speaking of which, where is she?"

"It's quite strange… she's become quite protective recently. We often see each other when getting food, but this is the first time in years that a fight has broken out between the two of us."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I've even had other companions when seeing her many times, but the worst that happened was a death glare. The only times I've seen her get angry like today is when she's protective of something, and I think that 'something' is you."

"But she hates me! Every time I see her, she's mad for some reason, as if things would be better off if I wasn't there."

"That's just her. Since I've known her, she hasn't been much like the caregiver type."

"That anger has to be more than just a bad attitude. Did something happen?"

"Toby…" Rebecca's tone suddenly became downcast, and she pulled me into a hug. "…please don't tread into that area. Sufficed to say that something did happen between Carnivore and I. Please, for your own sake, don't ask anyone about the specifics, not even me and especially not the Carnivore. You still have four days of your Leniency Week left, use them well. Strengthen what bonds of friendship you have made, because you will need them pretty darn soon. Don't sever those ties."

That was all I remembered of my first week at the Void. What happened after the Duel with Sky Fairy was all a blur, but I mostly remember terrible food, Carnivore's verbal abuse and Rebecca… another thing I can't remember, where was she? That was actually the last time I saw her during my Leniency Week, everything else is just a blank. It was probably due to what would follow after.


	7. Chapter 7: Welcome to the Void (2)

Chapter 7: Welcome to the Void (2)

My Leniency Week… it was over before I knew it, and before long, I was given another item by the guards: an attachment to my Duel Disk, which modified the Multi-Duel Voice Network to include a one-way communicator between me and the various staff of the Void. My first 'lesson', as they called it, was in one of the many target ranges they had, where I was given a Hinotama card and told to use it to destroy a concrete pillar. Playing the card, a fireball materialized in front of me and got hurled towards the pillar – missing it by about fifteen degrees give or take and hitting the wall behind it instead.

All of a sudden, pain jolted all the way up my left arm, leaving it feeling numb. Soon, feeling returned to me and I was told to try again or face more 'punishment'. Once again, I placed the Hinotama card into the Duel Disk, and the fireball reappeared, this time blasting the pillar. However, when the smoke cleared, that pillar was still standing, with only a few cracks where the fireball impacted. "Again," they told me, and again, I blasted the pillar. Hinotama after Hinotama after Hinotama was played, and fireball after fireball was exploding on the pillar, yet by my 14th fireball, the test was called off.

The pillar, while it had crumbled, was still partially there, and from there, the next lesson was in another room, where I was locked in with another person and given a Psychic Sword card. We were both told to play it, grab the sword and fight. Doing so, the blade felt quite insubstantial, as if I were holding a hollowed-out hilt. The other person had already summoned the blade and was charging at me, the sword raised

"Wait!" I shouted, holding my sword in a horizontal position above my head

"I can't!" I heard a female voice yell. She sounded desperate. Her sword bashed down on mine, and started sinking through.

"Why? Why do we have to do this?"

"I don't want to go back there again, so please, just lose for my sake!"

I felt a fist ram into my stomach, and from there, I took a blow to the back of my head, essentially forcing me to the floor disoriented and gasping for breath. The other girl 'passed' and was dismissed, and I was taken away to another area, where I was tortured even more on a bed, like the tests back at Arcadia. They told me beforehand that, had I won the sword fight, this wouldn't have happened and I would instead have the lessons for the day ended while my opponent would endure the 'education'.

The next thing I knew was being at the food court with some sushi, like I was dreaming while sleeping on the table.

"Toby… are you alright?" I heard a voice within me… a strangely feminine and familiar, yet seemingly alien voice.

"I… think so," I thought.

"That is good to hear, I tried to repair what I could of the damage."

"Sorry… but who are you?"

"You don't remember? I have been with you since that awful day in New Domino City."

"I'm sorry, but this is my first time hearing your voice."

"Remember, as you lay in your bed crying for someone to be a friend to you, to keep you company and hold you close until your sister got back from a photo shoot overseas?"

"I'm sorry, but I really can't remember."

"You can stop with the apologies. Despite the fact that you can't remember, I have always been a friend to you. As such, you do not need to apologize to me for anything. Just give it some time, and your memories of me will come back to you."

"What happened to me?"

"The Void is trying to draw your powers out. Their last test that you can remember, you were suffering and I knew you couldn't take much more, so I took control of your body for a short while to spare you from further pain. If you wish, I can grant you the power to overcome your psychic weaknesses."

"So, when is this now?"

"This is during the night. There are 45 minutes left until the cut-off time when they want people back in their cells."

I looked around, and it looked like there weren't many people. The vendors, from what I saw, were also preparing to close.

"Finally awake, aren't you?" another voice sounded. I turned to see Carnivore walking towards me. "Come, we have to go."

From there, I was dragged back to my cell, wanting to ask that voice in my head exactly what else was going on, but getting no reply. Once we were back inside the cell, I was filled in on what exactly had been happening by Carnivore; apparently there were reports of me shambling from lesson to lesson and mindlessly doing what was said without saying a word, not even letting out a small gasp of pain. I seem to have done badly on all of the lessons.

After that, I was reportedly shambling through the food court. People trying to communicate with me weren't getting any response, not even Carnivore or Rebecca (she continued to refer to her as Succubus). I had supposedly sat at an unoccupied table and gone to sleep.

"Why do you keep calling her a succubus?" I had to ask.

"_The_ Succubus, kid. It's her title," she responded

"How did she get it? Besides, if she has a title, then what about the Beast?"

"He is just a wild animal, but Succubus is nowhere near as stupid. She has a habit of letting people get close to her, and while they have their back turned, she studies their Deck and makes time to prepare a counter-strategy against it, and I think that's only at the best of times."

"Surely, that's not so bad? I agree, the Deck-studying is a little unnerving, but still, at least she is sincere."

"Perish the thought, kid. I was only trying to sugarcoat her behavior enough that you don't freak out. She has got many tools at her disposal, she isn't afraid to use them and she knows exactly when to use what for who. So far, there hasn't been anybody who has been able to resist falling under her spell. Succubus is many things, but truly caring isn't one of them."

"What?! You mean that everything she told me…?"

"…is probably a lie. That's why you shouldn't ever trust anyone in this place."

"But maybe she really cares! Maybe you are reading the situation wrong!"

"Then don't come crying to me when you find out your 'closest friend' blabbed your deepest secrets to someone who is potentially your worst nightmare!"

I couldn't believe this. Was Rebecca really lying to me? Just like all of those other times when I was around people? Exactly who, aside from my sister and maybe Carnivore, wasn't lying to me? Were _they_ even telling the truth to begin with? I fell asleep again in my cell, with that doubt still plaguing me.

The next day, I was told to go back to the area I had my torture lesson in the previous day. From there, electrodes were strapped towards me, and electricity started coursing through my body. It wasn't gentle either, such as in Arcadia movement where it started with a tingling and got turned up; here it felt I was being hit by lightning from the word go.

The pain was even worse than yesterday. I kept shaking as the current flowed through me.

The current didn't stop.

I couldn't hear anything above my own screaming.

If anything, the current kept getting worse.

Every single part of my body felt like it was on fire, both inside and out.

The current kept increasing…

I couldn't take much more of this

It felt like it was reaching its peak…

"Toby, wake up!" a voice suddenly shouted.


	8. Chapter 8: Breaking point

**Author's**** note:** Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards, but cards that I made up. I will put this note up every time there is a Duel involving such cards.

* * *

Chapter 8: Breaking Point

I jolted up from my bed, and I could feel myself sweating. Did I sleep that badly? I found myself not in the Void, but in my sister's apartment. It was mostly a lightish brown color, and the bed was much more comfortable.

"Toby, are you okay? You looked like you were having a terrible nightmare," I heard Misty's voice by my bed. Looking to my left, I could see her, and from what I saw, she looked worried.

"Onee-chan?" I had to ask. "Was I here the whole time?"

"Yes, Toby. You were shaking quite a bit and even crying in your sleep."

"So that was all a dream. Thank goodness, I thought I lost you."

"Listen, Toby. I know it's not the best time to say this, but you are running late for school."

"Darn it! There's that test on Spell cards today!" I yelled as I darted out of my bed and quickly got changed into my blue Duel Academy uniform. Once I was changed, I grabbed a slice of bread and my Duel Disk and was about to run out the door when Misty offered to give me a lift.

As the two of us got out the door, we spotted someone from Sector Security who demanded that my sister remain at home unless someone beat him in a Duel. I couldn't stand this, so I activated my Duel Disk on the spot. It was different from the standard-issue Duel Disk in that only one part of the actual Disk was visible: a thick, dark blue crescent shape that would extend, rotate 90 degrees and spit out the card slots from the inner area, culminating in a blade. I even heard a voice telling me to win this, that I can win this, and to drain his powers dry… every last drop. Once the Security armed his Duel Disk, I opted to go first, being the challenger. I just placed four cards face-down to end my turn.

The Security summoned Iron Chain Repairman (1600/1200) and from there, he used Double Summon to summon another Iron Chain Repairman. For his next move, he played Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two, and used the effects of each Iron Chain Repairman to Special Summon a Level 4 Iron Chain Coil and a Level 2 Iron Chain Blaster. Those two monsters were Synchro Summoned to bring out Iron Chain Dragon (2500/1300). As a result of its ability, the monster gained 200 ATK for every Iron Chain monster in the Security's Graveyard, which brought it up to 2900. He played Poison Chain, followed by Paralyzing Chain and finally, Card of Demise, the last of which allowed him to draw up to five cards in exchange for discarding his hand in five turns.

From there, he played Graceful Charity again, drawing three and discarding two, after which he used Soul Charge to Special Summon two Iron Chain Snakes (800/1200) from his Graveyard, presumably discarded via Graceful Charity.

"Trap Activate: **Aura of Life Transfer**!" I shouted, as his Life Points decreased from 4000 to 3000, mine increased from 4000 to 5000 and the area was engulfed in a dark purple/pink mist. As the damage registered, grey vapors started emanating from him and streamed towards me, turning blue along the way. "This card activates whenever anyone loses Life Points, and causes the other to gain as many Life Points. What's more, this Trap Card, although a Continuous Trap Card, is now forced to be moved to the Field Spell Card zone and obey Field Spell Card rules."

From there, the guy didn't see fit to attack me for some reason. That was when Poison Chain activated, forcing me to send cards to my Graveyard equal to the combined Levels of all Iron Chain monsters he had on the field. His Iron Chain Dragon was a Level 6, with two Level 4 Iron Chain Repairmen and two Level 3 Iron Chain Snakes, which equaled 20 cards, leaving me with 14 cards in my Deck. Paralyzing Chain then activated, dealing 300 damage for each card sent to my Graveyard via that effect, dealing me 6000 damage. I revealed Spell Textbook, discarding my entire hand to draw one card and reveal it, with immediate activation if the card was a Spell Card. I drew Emergency Provisions, activating it immediately, destroying my two remaining Set cards to gain 2000 Life Points. As a result of that, **Aura of Life Transfer** activated another effect where any gain in Life Points for one player is a loss in Life Points for the other, meaning he was down to 1000 while I was at 7000, but due to Paralyzing Chain, the numbers were reversed. I was now on 1000 Life Points while he was on 7000, and blue vapors emerged from me and streamed towards him, turning grey along the way. I felt severely weakened after that, and wanted nothing more to take back what was truly mine!

There were now 26 cards in my Graveyard and 13 in my Deck, 12 when I drew. I played my Card of Sanctity, drawing until having six cards, leaving me with 6 in my Deck. From there, I played Blue Medicine, increasing my Life Points by 400 and decreasing the Security Officer's by 400 in turn, coming to 1400 and 6600 respectively, again, having grey vapors stream towards me, turning blue along the way. After that, I used Heavy Storm to destroy all Spell and Trap cards on the field, but my… let's call it a Field Trap Card… remained.

"Your Trap should have been destroyed!" the Officer yelled.

"There is a third effect to the card," I explained. "It cannot be destroyed by Spell Cards, Trap Cards or Monster effects."

I used Pot of Greed to draw two cards, then used Spell Reproduction, discarding two Spells in my hand to return one from my Graveyard. There were only two cards in my hand and four cards left in my Deck, so I used Card of Demise to draw those four cards and give me a hand of five, with me discarding that hand in five turns. I now had no cards in my Deck, five cards in my Hand and about 33 cards in my Graveyard. I placed two cards face-down, used Dark Hole to destroy all of the Officer's monsters, and played two Spell Cards. The first was **Sad Story – Harbingers of the Chapters**, and although it did nothing now, that was what my second Spell Card was for: Sad Story – Sorrowful Memories. This forced both of us to, if we drew a Monster Card during our Draw Phase, shuffle it back into our Deck. My first card activated an effect, Special Summoning one **Harbinger of Tragic Endings – Suffering** from my Hand, Deck or Graveyard, my Graveyard in this case. My new monster gained 500 ATK for each card that had 'Sad Story' in its name, bringing it up to 1000 points, although sadly it couldn't attack.

The Officer drew, but he drew a Monster card, and as a result had to shuffle it back into his Deck. That was when the effect of **Harbinger of Tragic Endings – Suffering** activated: since a card was targeted by a Sad Story, the affected player lost 500 Life Points, putting him on 6100 and me on was also when I revealed Exchange of the Spirit. I paid 1000 Life Points to force both of us to swap the cards in our Decks with the cards in our Graveyards, leaving me with 900 Life Points and 34 cards in my Deck, while he had 7100 Life Points, but only 12 cards to draw, with 7 of them being sealed off.

He sent three monsters to his Graveyard to Special Summon a Montage Dragon (?/0) from his hand. The monsters he had sent were Iron Chain Repairman, Iron Chain Snake and Iron Chain Coil, two Level 4s and a Level 3, and the Levels put together, then multiplied by 300, meant that Montage Dragon had 3300 Attack points. With that, he tried to attack my Harbinger, but I revealed Nightmare Wheel, stopping the attack. There was nothing more he could do, so he ended his turn.

When my turn came, I drew Nibelung's Treasure and dealt 500 damage to the Officer from Nightmare Wheel, putting him on 6600 and me on 1400. I played my new card, allowing me to draw 5 cards and activate a Spell Card on my opponent's side of the field, so I chose to activate Darkworld Shackles, equipping it to the Officer's Montage Dragon and subsequently changing its stats to 100 ATK and DEF, forbidding it from attacking and making its owner take 500 points of damage during each of my Standby Phases. As I drew, I pointed out that since this happened outside of the Draw Phase, nothing would have been targeted by Sad Story. Then I summoned Bowganian (1300/1000) and activated my **Advanced Machine Duplication**, allowing me to summon two more from my Deck. Its effect was to select one monster with 1500 or less ATK and Special Summon two more from the Deck, destroying the summoned monsters if the original monster's ATK points exceeded 1500. One Graceful Charity later, in which I drew three and discarded two, I placed two cards face-down to end my turn.

The Officer drew, and he revealed a Spell Card, allowing him to keep it. He subsequently played another Card of Demise, drawing until he had five cards in exchange for discarding his Hand in five turns. He was already two turns away from discarding his hand as it was, and from there, he played a Mystical Space Typhoon, destroying the Nightmare Wheel, and afterwards, a Spell Card called D – Burst. This allowed him to destroy an Equip Spell Card he controlled, destroying Darkworld Shackles, and allowed him to draw one card. After that, he attacked my **Harbinger of Tragic Endings – Suffering** with his freed Montage Dragon, now back to 3300 ATK, but I revealed Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward by three. Since three Standby Phases passed, I had all three Bowganian monsters activate their effect three times: during each of my opponent's end phases, he loses 300 Life Points. For one Standby Phase, that would be a total loss of 900, but for three turns, that translated into 2700 points of damage, putting him on 3900 points and me, as a result of my Trap in the Field Spell zone, on 4100 Life Points. My other card activated as well: **Burning Pain**, a card that, although a Continuous Spell Card, can be activated as a Quick-Play Spell card. I banished a Spell card from my Graveyard, Nibelung's Treasure, to double the effect damage done until my End Phase, which made the damage 5400, bringing him to 1200 and me to 6800. From there, I banished a Trap Card, my Cemetery Bomb drawn and discarded via Graceful Charity, to instead triple the damage, making him take 8100 points of damage and completely deplete his Life Points to 0. This also increased mine to 8000 as a whole mass of grey vapors streamed towards me, turned blue along the way and got breathed in by me. I personally found the taste very enjoyable.

One thing I noticed during the Duel was that, as I lost Life Points, I felt myself getting weaker, but as I gained Life Points, I felt my powers grow, and with the win, I felt like I was on top of the world! The Sector Security officer, however, was a different story, as he was on all fours gasping for air. My powers as a Psychic Duelist had grown, and I felt as though it was quite enjoyable.

On my way to school in Misty's car, I couldn't help but wonder if the Void was really all just a bad dream. It had to be, there was no way that there could be anyone as violent and scary as that Carnivore person I saw in my dream, and maybe the Rebecca Scarlet character was just something my mind had conjured up based on how I had been tricked by school bullies before… yet those experiences in that place felt so real.

"Something on your mind, Toby?" Misty asked.

"Sorry, Onee-chan, just that dream I had," I replied.

"Was it that horrible?"

"Onee-chan, have you ever felt as though you're dreaming, but the dream feels so real?"

"I know the feeling, Toby. It can drive you mad. Try not to think about it."

"Okay."

"Listen, I have to go to a photo shoot this afternoon, so I'll only be able to pick you up during the evening. Is that okay?"

"That should be fine." This felt true actually, as although Duel Academy seemed to be full of bullies who liked picking on me at the earliest opportunity, I felt extremely invigorated by my victory this morning.

* * *

**End note:** The design for Toby's new Duel Disk was sort of inspired by the Disks used by Dartz and his men in the original Yugioh.


	9. Chapter 9: Power Drain

**Author's note:** Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards, but my own creation, more or less.

* * *

Chapter 9: Power Drain

My day at New Domino Duel Academy was getting quite interesting. As I got out of the car, I was confronted by one of the people who enjoyed picking on me when I was younger. His name isn't important, as he was just one of many, but he challenged me to a Duel. I accepted on condition that I go first, yet all I really did was place four cards face-down. When he took his turn, he played Gearfried the Iron Knight (1800/1600), followed by Release Restraint to sacrifice the monster and bring out Gearfried the Swordmaster (2600/2200). The Equip Spell Card Excalibur was equipped to the monster, doubling the ATK to 5200.

The bully attacked with the monster, but first I revealed my Nightmare Mirror, discarding one card, negating the attack and dealing 1000 points of damage to him. That was also when I revealed my **Aura of Life Transfer** Trap Card, moving it to the Field Spell Card slot and gaining the Life Points my opponent had lost as extra Life Points for me. As this happened, a thick vapor emanated from him and streamed towards me, turning blue on the way.

"You may have squeezed by for now, but that still doesn't mean a thing! I place a card face-down and end my turn!" the bully yelled.

"Keep talking… while you can! I draw!" I shouted back. I summoned Bowganian (1300/1000) and activated Nibelung's Treasure, drawing five cards and activating a Spell Card from my Deck on my opponent's side of the field. I chose to activate Scapegoat this way, giving him four Scapegoats, and then I revealed my face-down Nightmare Tri-Mirror. Since my opponent had 'technically' Special Summoned monsters, I could choose a monster and Special Summon that many tokens with the same stats, abilities, everything as my chosen monster. With not much of a choice, I chose Bowganian, gaining four tokens of that monster. From there, I set two more cards face-down.

During his turn, the bully chose to skip the Draw Phase to keep Excalibur on his monster. From there, he equipped Axe of Despair to the monster as well, bringing it up to 6600 Attack points. He attacked, revealing his face-down Safe Zone, and then stating that I couldn't target his monster with any card effects. I could just see in his eyes that he thought he was going to win… the poor fool. He has kept me down long enough! I revealed my Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward by three turns, and each time my Bowganian and the tokens activated their effects, together removing 1500 Life Points per turn, in total taking off 4500. As the monsters shot their arrows into him, all fifteen arrows at that, that same vapor gushed off his body and started streaming into my mouth, turning blue as it came towards me.

Oh, the sweet taste of vengeance. It felt so rewarding to see that pathetic life form's defeated and depleted husk lying on the floor. I didn't kill him; I hadn't even come close to that. I sensed that he, somehow, had Psychic Dueling powers, so I just drained them. And oh, did they taste sweet, as although insubstantial in form, those Psychic Powers tasted like honey, for lack of a better phrase, once you started depleting their Life Points.

"Yes, Toby, it does feel good doesn't it?" a voice spoke inside my head; the very same feminine voice that resonated in my head when I was dreaming about the Void.

"It feels magnificent. To have those who abused and stole from me suffer the same fate is exhilarating," I replied mentally.

"May you continue to enjoy your feast, and take what is rightfully yours back from them."

"Who are you, though? I heard you in a dream I had, but I didn't know who you were."

"My name is not important. You may think of me as your true power. You wanted someone to be a friend to you, so I answered the call and came to you. You wanted to be able to stop the bullying being done to you, so I gave you the power to do so. That same power allowed you to feast on their sweet essences. Although be alert: there is another one coming down the corridor."

"I see her, the one who forcefully made me funnel questions to Misty and answers back to her. I'm going to enjoy taking her down!"

Very predictably, this bully also challenged me to a Duel, opting to go first with the 'Ladies First' rule. She summoned Etoile Cyber (1200/1600), and then used Polymerization to fuse it with the Blade Skater in her hand and Summon Cyber Blader (2100/800). She couldn't attack as this was her first turn, so she let me go.

My hand wasn't great, so I used the one good card I had: Card Destruction, to discard my hand and draw the same number of cards, with my opponent doing the same. My next hand was somewhat better, but still not quite there, so I played Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two. That was when I got what I wanted. I placed three cards face-down and ended my turn.

When she acted, she used two identical Spell Cards: Fusion Weapon, increasing Cyber Blader's ATK and DEF by 1500, making it 3600/2100, then the second one made it 5100/ 3600. With that, she tried attacking me directly, but I revealed my Nightmare Mirror, discarded one card, negated the attack and made her take 1000 damage. I revealed my other face-down then as well, my **Aura of Life Transfer**, making me gain the 1000 points of damage to her as an increase to my own Life Points, also moving the Spell to the Field Spell Zone. She had no other choice but to end her turn, although she did place one card face-down.

I drew, and I must have smirked, because this particular bully asked what I was grinning about. First, I revealed my Non Aggression Area, forbidding her from Summoning or Setting Monsters during her turn. I followed that up with Card of Sanctity, allowing both of us to refill our hands, after which I set four cards to fill up my Spell and Trap card zone and ended my turn.

When she drew, she laughed and attacked with her Cyber Blader, but I activated Rescuer from the Grave, removing five cards in my Graveyard from play to negate the attack. That was when she revealed Mischief of the Time Goddess, skipping one turn and moving directly to next turn's Battle Phase. Her Cyber Blader attacked again, but this time I revealed my Nightmare Wheel, stopping it in its tracks.

When my turn came round, Non Aggression Area disintegrated and she took 500 damage from Nightmare Wheel, also giving me 500 Life Points. As vapor emitted from her, turned blue and streamed into my waiting mouth, I was on 5500 Life Points compared to her 2500. From there, I summoned my Bowganian (1300/1000) and activated Nibelung's Treasure, drawing five cards and activating my Scapegoat on her side of the field. Due to that, I revealed my Nightmare Tri-Mirror, choosing my Bowganian and Special Summoning four Copy Tokens with its stats and abilities.

When her turn came around, she placed four cards face down and activated Emergency Provisions, destroying them to regain 4000 Life Points, also removing 4000 of mine, so that we were on 6500 and 1500 respectively. My strength began draining from me, evaporating, and the vapor turned to a grey color before flowing into the bully's mouth. From there, she used Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Nightmare Wheel, freeing her Cyber Blader. With her monster, she attacked one of my monsters. That was when I revealed a Turn Jump, moving the turn count forward by three. Three End Phases passed for her, which meant that each time, she took 300 damage from each Bowganian and Token on my field, equaling 4500. As my strength returned to me in the form of the blue vapor traveling into me, my Life Points had increased to 6000, while hers had decreased to 2000. Her monster was still attacking, so I revealed a second Turn Jump, taking off the last of her Life Points and, again, Psychic Powers.

After the last of the blue mist blew into my mouth, my adversary collapsed where she stood. About five or so minutes later, the two most notable Duel Academy bullies appeared before me: Brass-Balled Billy and Lady Killer Lucas, the two people I hated most of all. They always made my life at Duel Academy at the first opportunity. The fact that they were taller than me and physically stronger didn't help my case much. "Looks like the little twerp's getting uppity," the former noted. There was some more discussion, but eventually, they decided that they were going to fight me together.

"You can have your Duel," I spoke "…on two conditions. First, since I am facing two of you, I'm taking a handicap of an extra amount of Life Points. Secondly, you are going to share your Life total as well, making you have 8000 starting as well. Also, since there are more than two players, nobody may attack in the opening round."

"Just why do you think we would agree to that?" Lucas began, but Billy cut him off with the sentence "Sure, it's not like a pathetic weakling is going to beat us anyway, so let's let him have his deal. He goes first."

Perfect. As we activated our Duel Disks, I looked at my opening Hand. I placed one card face-down and summoned Newdoria (1200/800). Billy went next, summoning Babycerasaurus (500/500), Special Summoned Gilasaurus (1400/400) by its own effect and placed two cards face down. After that came Lucas, summoning Maiden in Love (400/300) and played Polymerization, fusing it with the Level 5 Succubus Knight in his hand to create **Succubus Temptress** (2000/1500). He set a card face down to end his turn, since nobody could attack in their first turn.

After I drew, I summoned Nightmare Horse (500/400) and used my own Polymerization to fuse it with the Spirit Reaper in my Hand to summon Reaper on the Nightmare (800/600). Its ability allowed me to disregard the monsters they had on the field and attack them directly, so that was exactly what I did, though not before revealing and moving to the Field Spell Zone my **Aura of Life Transfer**, gaining the 800 points they lost from the attack. As mist evaporated from their bodies and streamed into my mouth, my Life Points increased to 8800, while they were on 7200. After that came a Pot of Greed for two free cards, then I summoned my Bowganian (1300/1000) and used **Advanced Machine Duplication** to summon two more from my Deck. My last card was Card of Demise, playing it to get a hand of five cards in exchange for discarding my hand in five turns, after which I placed two cards face-down to end my turn.

Billy's turn saw him play Polymerization, fusing Gilasaurus with the Kaitoptera in his Hand to Fusion Summon Horned Saurus (2000/1000). From there, he activated Card of Sanctity, giving everyone a six-card Hand, followed the Continuous Spell Card **Torturous Jurassic Hunger**, decreasing all of his Dinosaurs' Defense Points to 0, but increasing their attack by the amount of Defense points lost. As a result, if their DEF lost to fuel the ATK was at least greater than half their original ATK, they gained Piercing, meaning the difference in Battle Damage between its ATK and a defense mode monster's DEF came out of my Life Points. At that point, he summoned Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000), played Graceful Charity to draw three and discard two cards, and revealed a face-down Skull Lair, banishing two monsters from his Graveyard to destroy one monster on the field, actually targeting his own Babycerasaurus. However, that thing's effect then activated: since it was destroyed, he could Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Dinosaur from his Deck, summoning Tyranno Infinity (?/0) as a result. This new monster immediately gained 2000 ATK since two monsters were removed from play. Six counters also went on to the Miracle Jurassic Egg, two from the Babycerasaurus that was sent to the Graveyard, and the other four from the two monsters discarded via Graceful Charity.

Next, he had another Gilasaurus Special Summon itself, and from there, the card Foolish Burial was played, sending a monster from his Deck to his Graveyard and increasing the counters on Miracle Jurassic Egg to eight. A Card of Demise was then played, granting him five cards on condition that he discard his Hand in five turns. He still wasn't finished, as the next thing to come was a Double Summon and then a Mad Sword Beast (1400/1200), which was sacrificed, along with the Gilasaurus, to summon Ultimate Tyranno (3000/2200). The Miracle Jurassic Egg with now twelve counters was then sacrificed to bring out Super Conductor Tyranno (3300/1400) from his Deck. Monster Reborn was then used to bring back a Gilasaurus, but directly after that it was Tributed to Summon a Super-Ancient Dinobeast (2700/1400).

Things weren't looking good. Billy had five heavy hitters ready to attack, with **Torturous Jurassic Hunger** further fuelling their ATK: Horned Saurus with now 3000, Tyranno Infinity with 2000, Ultimate Tyranno with 5200, Super Conductor Tyranno with 4700 and Super-Ancient Dinobeast with 4100 Attack points.


	10. Chapter 10: Reunion

**Author's note:** A reminder that any **bold** cards are not actual Yugioh cards.

* * *

Chapter 10: Reunion

I was in quite a bind here. All I had on my field were three 1300 ATK Bowganian monsters, a 1200 ATK Newdoria and an 800 ATK Reaper on the Nightmare, along with two face-down cards. Meanwhile, I was up against monsters that had their ATK further pumped up by the effect of **Torturous Jurassic Hunger**, a card which decreases the DEF of all Dinosaurs you control to 0, and increased their ATK by the amount of DEF lost. These were a 3000 ATK Horned Saurus, a 2000 ATK Tyranno Infinity, a 5200 ATK Ultimate Tyranno, a 4700 ATK Super Conductor Tyranno and a 4100 ATK Super Ancient Dinobeast. There was also a **Succubus Temptress** with 2000 ATK on the field of my other childhood bully.

Billy decided to start attacking with Ultimate Tyranno, saying that in this case he didn't have a choice. First, it headed for a Bowganian, but I triggered Negate Attack, stopping the attack and ending his Battle Phase.

"That's actually a good thing," Lucas stated. "We don't want him to go down too easily, do we? Besides, I think my girl wants to have some fun with him!"

"Shut up and make your move!" Billy shouted, just as he arrived at his End Phase and took 900 damage from my three Bowganian to come to 6900 while I rose to 9100 Life Points. Lucas drew, and immediately tried to use Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy **Aura of Life Transfer**, but it predictably failed.

"Why wasn't your Trap destroyed?" he, again predictably, demanded.

"I guess I might as well explain to you, although it's not like someone who spends most of their time kicking your juniors while they're down on the ground would understand," I sighed. "My Trap Card, once it is in my Field Spell Card Zone, cannot be destroyed by card effects, whether it be a Trap, Spell or Monster Effect, nothing will work."

"In that case, my **Succubus Temptress** will attack your Reaper on the Nightmare. Now the Special ability of my monster activates: since it engaged in battle, I must flip a coin. If it lands on heads, your monster is mine, and if tails, it battles as normal!"

He proceeded to flip the coin, and it proceeded to land… on heads, whereupon he continued. "Since the coin landed on heads, a Maiden Counter is placed on your monster, moving it to my side of the field."

Reaper on the Nightmare was, however, destroyed instead, as it automatically destroys itself when targeted by a Spell, Trap or Monster effect. Still, the monster attacked, which allowed me to trigger my other face-down Turn Jump, dealing 300 damage per Bowganian per enemy End Phase and moving three turns into the future. Three turns passed for Billy, and three times my monsters shot at him, dealing 2700 damage. Three turns also passed for Lucas, and he was also shot three times, dealing a further 2700 damage to their combined Life Points. They were now on 1500 Life Points, and as vapors emanated from them, turned blue and streamed into my mouth, my Life Points rose to 14500. With Lucas' tactic failed, he had no choice but to end his turn, whereupon he took 900 more damage from my Bowganian squad, bringing both of them down to 600 points and me to 15400.

Their power, as I noticed when I drew my card, tasted somewhat strange. It wasn't going into me just yet; that would happen once I won, but I could taste it on my tongue, and it felt weirdly familiar. I just had one turn left now until Card of Demise's other effect kicked in. For now, the Dinosaurs were the major threat, so I activated my Nightmare's Steelcage and used it on Billy: for two of his turns, his monsters couldn't attack. Now, victory was mine!

When he took his turn, he started acting strangely. He played Pot of Greed for two cards and discarded a Destroyersaurus from his Hand to retrieve a Jurassic World from his Deck. From there, he activated the Jurassic World, and then something weird happened. The purple/pink mist around us started dissipating, and the view of the Duel Academy returned. Even stranger was the fact that there were cracks appearing very rapidly: on the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling, even on the bullies. It started cracking so much that soon nothing was distinguishable. The only thing to remain was me, my monsters and all their monsters.

The cracks eventually fell away revealing a completely different area: the black corridors of the Void, the same Void in my dream. In place of Brass-Balled Billy stood the Carnivore from my dream, with her Duel Disk activated, and in place of Lady Killer Lucas stood Rebecca Scarlet aka Succubus from the same dream, again with her Duel Disk activated.

"Looks like whatever was controlling him has lifted," Rebecca sighed, with relief from what I could tell.

"It was that Trap Card in the Field Spell Zone," Carnivore told her. "I could sense that somehow, it was manipulating him. When you failed to destroy it with your card, I was actually at a loss on how to get rid of it. After he told us it was invulnerable to destruction by card effects, I knew what I had to do."

"What the hell is going on? Why did the scenery change?" I found myself shouting.

"It was always like this. You were always dueling in this corridor."

"Nonsense, I remember going to my classes at Duel Academy! Then two of my most prominent childhood bullies demanded a Duel with me, and now they appear to be taking the form of two women from a dream I had last night!"

"So that's what you saw."

Carnivore then walked up to me, took my hand and placed some of her hair inside. "Tell me, does this feel like an illusion to you?"

"No, but what's your point?"

"I thought so. Dreams and reality can get quite blurry sometimes. I think you were in a state of sleepwalking. What we saw was you emanating a purple-pinkish aura and Dueling everyone that got in your way. You even have one of the guards drained of his Psychic Powers. Before us, who did you see yourself Dueling?"

I didn't trust Carnivore at this point, because for all I knew, she was actually an illusion brought on by my childhood bully, yet still, I felt compelled to tell her. "I remember a Sector Security officer, a male bully, a female bully and then two prominent childhood bullies, whose places you took when one of them played a Jurassic World."

"Here's what Suc- Rebecca told me. She was actually worried about you, having found out somehow of me telling you how she operated, so she tried to keep an eye on you. From what she told me, you went crazy as soon as they started torturing you beyond a certain point, with your eyes being shrouded by a mist the same color as the aura you were giving off. You Dueled one of the Guards, although she couldn't see from where she was hiding what happened, but you apparently drained so much of his Psychic Powers that he was gasping for air on all fours."

"They seem to have said…" Rebecca continued, "…that every last bit of his Psychic Powers had vanished. You proceeded to come to Cellblock 7 and Dueled the first person you happened across. By the time I got here, he was also on all fours with his Psychic Power gone. I managed to get inside the field as you Dueled another Duelist by the name of the Dancer, and as soon as you activated your Trap Card, I knew what was happening: you were draining her Psychic Powers."

"That was when she came to find me. You arrived shortly after her, and you actually demanded a Duel with us, with combined Life Points for us and double for you. But now, your Trap Card is destroyed, and from the looks of it, our Life Points have been restored to their original value."

That was indeed the case; we were both at 8000. "Now," she continued "…do you want us to finish this Duel, or can we just call it a draw?"

"By the way, how exactly was the Trap Card destroyed?" Rebecca asked.

"Whenever another Field Spell Card comes into play, my Trap Card is automatically destroyed, but not before it destroys the Field Spell Card that caused its destruction. Since my Trap is now gone, our Life Points have been restored to what they originally were. Anyway, Carnivore?"

"Yes, Toby?" she replied.

"While it would be emotionally better for me to forfeit the Duel, I just cannot for some reason. So you can see this Duel through to the end, just please avoid use of your Psychic Powers."

"Sure, Toby. I use Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Nightmare's Steelcage and allow me to attack, and with that, it's feeding time!" With that, she started her assault with Ultimate Tyranno, a 5200 ATK monster, which had to attack first, and had to attack all monsters. First, she attacked a Bowganian, destroying it and decreasing my Life Points by 3900. Another Bowganian was destroyed, and I took another 3900 damage to only have 200 Life Points left. As my last Bowganian was destroyed, I sighed as my Life Points hit 0.

"I'm so glad you're back, Toby!" Rebecca shouted, running towards me and pulling me into her with a hug.

"So, you weren't trying to seduce him after all?" Carnivore asked.

"There's something about my methods you _don't_ know. There are people in this place who genuinely need company, and I've always enjoyed friendly faces, but how to separate those who desperately need a shoulder to cry on from those to just want me as a one-night stand? When I first came here, people just wanted to take advantage of me. You were the one who drove them off, and you helped me acclimatize here."

"But you were gallivanting with the Bombardier!"

"That was part of a method I devised. I still considered you a friend, and it hurt me that I had seemingly hurt you."

"When I saw you with that man, it was like everything I taught you meant nothing! What was more, I heard you leaking secrets!"

"You need to hear the full story. Earlier that day, I had devised a small trial to determine who _needed_ me and who just _wanted_ me, and when the Bombardier approached me, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to field test my… test. I can tell you now, because of his behavior, he failed miserably. That test proved to be very effective in separating those who wanted to use me from those that genuinely needed me. Those in the latter category were almost always girls younger than me, as even the boys just imagined me in fantasies. In fact, little Toby here was the only member of the opposite sex to ever _pass_ the test. As for the secrecy, I had a memory lapse."

"Speaking of Toby, could you let him come up for air?"

"Whoops, sorry. Again, I just tend to get over excited," Rebecca stated, slightly embarrassed, after which she let me withdraw a bit from her chest and breathe in some air that I desperately needed.

"Was that why you were named Succubus?" I had to ask.

"Yeah, sort of. Part of it had to do with my ace monster, the **Succubus Temptress**, but after the guys I 'seduced' saw me with other people I was with, they just gave me that label and it sort of stuck."

"What about Carnivore? Why is she called Carnivore?"

"Because of, firstly, my liking for meat," Carnivore interjected, "…and secondly, you saw my monsters. They are essentially meat-eaters, carnivores, and I've got a Deck full of these carnivorous Dinosaurs. One thing I have to ask, however. I already knew you were a fragile soul, but when I got struck by the arrows from your monsters, I could just sense that the pain I was suffering was a recreation of pain you suffered. What the hell happened to you?"

"I was just bullied a lot at Duel Academy. Why do you care?"

"Although she'd never admit it," Rebecca interrupted, "…despite all of the people who have tried to approach her being pushed away by her, deep down she really wants someone to be with. The only reason she is so aggressive when people approach her is probably because she doesn't want people to just use her. But are you sure that bullying was all that pain was? Surely you would have had friends to turn to?"

"What friends?"

"What do you mean, by 'What friends'?"

"From what I could see, nobody really wanted to be friends with me. I was ignored, beaten around by bullies or forced into messenger boy by the girls since my sister was a fashion model."

"I see, but still, surely you would have had your sister to turn to?"

"No. She was away on photo shoots most of the time, and whenever I told her of my troubles, the advice was always the same: 'Ignore them'." I had actually started crying at this point, with my blurred sight on the floor. "It's rather hard to ignore someone when that person is repeatedly kicking you in the stomach! So I just had to contain my feelings, and although the bullying stopped somewhat when I finally got my Psychic Powers, I was still ignored or made messenger boy. After a bit of research, I happened upon the Arcadia Movement, and it sounded so appealing: maybe there I would meet people who wouldn't write me off as a dusty punching bag or message relay!"

"So I was the first person to approach you?"

"Yes, Rebecca. You were the first to ever open your arms to me, and Carnivore was the first to actually go out of her way to help me. All this torture by the Void, it is taking me back to those days. The loneliness! The abuse! The pain! **I can't take it anymore! I WANT OUT OF THIS PLACE!**"

Rebecca pulled me back in, this time kneeling down so that my face was in her shoulder. I felt another set of arms wrap around me, felt another body press against mine, and I felt some long hair on one side of my face.

"Toby, there's something about the Void I haven't told you yet." I heard Carnivore's voice speak from right beside me. As she continued to talk, I felt as though I would have some hope at last… This period was one of the blackest periods of my life, and would be so for a year to come, but beyond that, a shred of hope emerged.


	11. Chapter 11: Open the Gates!

Chapter 11: Open the Gates!

A whole year has passed since my arrival at the Void. I was still relentlessly tortured, but somehow, the Psychic Powers I had stolen from the guards and the others had somehow lessened the pain. I was still told to perform trials, yet my performance improved as time went on. Carnivore was also somewhat less forceful and more caring now. Rebecca was still here as well, also giving me comfort alongside her, and the two seem to have buried the hatchet. I was still harassed by Duelists from time to time, but I managed to defeat them. One thing I noticed was that, when I was possessed by whatever it was that possessed me, my Deck had changed drastically to depend on more monsters. Since coming back to normal, I was using my original Deck, and had still maintained my record of winning without ever making one attack.

What Carnivore said the previous year was making me feel a bit anxious today: "You have the option of declaring war in this place."

I remember instantly saying "In that case, I will do exactly that!"

"You, yourself, cannot take that action yet. You need to have been here for two years to be able to earn the right to declare war."

"I cannot wait that long, Carnivore!"

"You don't need to wait that long. You only have to wait half the time to be able to participate in war. Meaning, once you have spent a whole year here, I can declare war on your behalf! If we win the resulting battle, there's a chance we may be able to escape."

"Why do we have to wait for a whole year to just be able to participate in war? Why do we have to wait two years before earning the right to declare war?"

"The thinking behind that seems to be that, by the end of the first year, they will have stamped out your will to fight. If you are still capable of turning against the Void after that, then you can fight by someone else's side, but your own declarations of war will be dismissed as ramblings. If, however, your will to fight hasn't been extinguished by the end of the second year here, you can fight for your freedom."

"Why do that? Won't it encourage more uprisings?"

"That's the elegance of the system. Gather a whole lot of people who want to fight their way out of the Void, then unleash their best on them to, theoretically, _permanently_ destroy their will to fight with much more effectiveness than any amount of torture could hope to achieve. What, after all, is the point of fighting when you have seen that you yourself are faced with such overwhelming odds? You may as well just stay in your cell like a good little failure."

"Did that happen to you?"

"No. I just chose not to get involved on the whole. But if you are truly serious about wanting to escape, hold out for one more year. If you need help doing so, you know where to find us. If your will to fight hasn't been snuffed out by this time next year, we will make a grand declaration of war."

I remembered that conversation, and today, Carnivore had gone to the Warden's office to make the declaration of war official.

"Attention, everyone in the Void," spoke the Multi Duel Voice Network on my Duel Disk, "All lessons are cancelled for today and tomorrow as Carnivore of Cellblock 7 has declared a War. All Cellblocks are to decide on their two key holders and are to meet in the War Arena tomorrow morning!"

Right then, Carnivore re-entered my cell and asked me. "You sure you want to go through with this?"

"A bit too late to ask now," I replied. "What did they mean having to select key-holders though?"

"Basically, selecting who will be Dueling. As you already know, only two people from each Cellblock can participate in War, and in a few cells, this causes some infighting as there are many people who want that slight hope. You don't need to worry, though: You told me beforehand that you want to be the one fighting by me in this, and in Cellblock 7, my word is law. All you need to do is make sure your Deck is ready. We are to go to the War Arena in the morning, so rest up."

"What do you mean by 'War Arena'?"

"It's a special Duel Arena. It is actually comprised of sixteen Duel Arenas as opposed to the thirty regular Arenas on each Duel Arena floor, and each Arena is arranged in a tournament ladder-style configuration from what I've heard. You'll see more tomorrow."

The next morning, Carnivore and I woke up early and were waiting in the War Arena. Earlier, we had arrived at the special 'War Arena' floor, and I saw booths numbering 4, 5, 6 etc. She took us to a booth labeled '7', and once we were inside, she pressed the 'Ready' button featured on the side of the booth wall. There was a screen showing numbers 1 through 16 in blocks, some colored red, others colored green. As she pressed the button, the '7' block turned from red to green, the door behind us locked, and a compartment opened, revealing a key.

Once all the blocks were green, an announcement began. "Welcome to the first War in about three years. You will have noticed that each of you has been given a key. That key is one of your seven Keys to the Future. Your objective is to Duel the other opponents to get their Keys. If you lose your Key, you lose the War."

"When the War begins, the door in front of you will open. However, you will see when you enter the Duel Arena that there is a locked door. That door can only be opened with a Key, which is acquired by defeating other Duelists. Each team of Duelists, when they Duel, has to use their Psychic Power, has to wager their current Keys and has to Duel as a Team. The rules for the Duels are as such: Each team will share a pool of 8000 Life Points. For the first Duels, there will be consensus on who takes the first move, and for all other Duels, the starting team is the one who had the highest number of Life Points at the end of their last Duel, with the individual Duelist's turn being based on a consensus within the team. The Winners will earn the right to carry their Keys with them to the next Duel, and the Losers will have to surrender any Keys they have accumulated and return from whence they came in shame. A key has to be left in the key hole for the door to stay open. To win this War, a Cellblock Team will need seven Keys"

"However, note that some locks require more than one Key. Notice how each of the Keys you have been given is marked '1'. You can only insert those Keys into Locks with corresponding signs. For the victors, you will be awarded higher number Keys as you progress through the doors. You can only win if you have seven different Keys."

"Once you have defeated your enemies in this war and used their Keys, you will proceed down the room to your next Duel, where you will Duel again. This will continue until one team reaches the Gatekeepers. That is where you will get your remaining three Keys, and one defeat results in forfeiture of the Keys you have accumulated."

"Of course," Carnivore spoke. "Limit the number of people who can participate in war, limit out of those the number of people who can declare war, limit _them_ to two people per Cellblock, and if enough people want to fight, they'll theoretically fight amongst themselves first. Then make them continue to fight amongst each Cellblock so that only two people make it to the Gatekeepers, and those two are eliminated just before the finish line."

"That's far too complicated," I sighed. I couldn't understand this at all. "Why not just have everyone Duel the Gatekeepers and be done with it?"

"Oh, but there's the beauty of it, Toby. Why just let a mob of prisoners fight against what are probably three of the Void's top Duelists? Because it's too goddamn tedious, fighting Duel after Duel. If it was as easy as you said, we'd be at war day in, day out."

"Then why bother with this whole war system in the first place?"

"I told you part of the reason already: to crush the will to fight in those who still have it after countless periods of agony, but beyond that, if there wasn't this system, there would probably have been riots long ago because people who can still talk straight want out. So, they leak the fact that there is the system that can, in some way, grant them freedom, then they force a limited number of people to fight among themselves to earn it, then crush the last pair standing with their elite force, with losses on such a wide scale intended to snuff out the urge to rebel. After all, is there any point to continuing to fight when you know that, after all your struggles, you fail at the last?"

"Now that the rules have been laid down for the Gate-Burst War," the announcement continued, "…the time has come for it to begin! **The Void Goes To War!**"

With that, the doors opposite our entry point opened, and the two of us stepped out into a Duel Arena, standing on the end closest to our entrance. We were met with the Beast and someone else, looking like a long blonde-haired girl.

"Ah, the Beast and the Dancer," Carnivore spoke.


	12. Chapter 12: Gate of Pride

**Author's note:** Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards.

* * *

Chapter 12: Gate of Pride

"Ah, I see it is time for revenge!" Beast shouted. "I think I'll go first."

When we all activated our Duel Disks, he drew and summoned Exarion Universe (1800/1900), played Double Summon and Summoned Vorse Raider (1900/1200). After that, he couldn't attack, so he let me take over. I just placed four cards face-down. Dancer was the next one to move, summoning Etoile Cyber (1200/1600) and played Polymerization to fuse it with the Blade Skater in her hand and summon Cyber Blader (2100/800). Carnivore was the next to go, Special Summoning a Gilasaurus (1400/400) from her hand, then summoning a Babycerasaurus (500/500). She ended with two face-down cards.

The Beast started his turn summoning a Gene-Warped Warwolf (2000/100), playing Double Summon and summoning Enraged Battle Ox (1700/1000). From there, he activated the Field Spell Sogen, increasing the ATK and DEF of all Beast-Warrior monsters by 200 points, followed by the Equip Spell Mystical Moon on the Gene-Warped Warwolf, increasing its ATK and DEF by 300. Its stats were now (2500/600), and Beast directed it to attack the Babycerasaurus, but I triggered Negate Attack, stopping the attack and ending the Battle Phase. With nothing else to do, Beast played Card of Sanctity, giving everyone a six card hand and ended his turn.

My turn, I revealed Solemn Wishes as I drew, and gained 500 Life Points for our team to come to 8500. I activated my Guardian Treasure, discarding five cards to draw two cards and earn the right to draw two cards from then on. Disgraceful Charity revealed itself then, returning the cards to my hand. At that point, I played my Burning Land, destroying the Field Spell that Beast played and forcing everyone to take damage during their Standby Phases. I then activated my **Partner's Gift** Normal Spell Card, allowing me to select one card in my Deck and activate it on my partner's side of the field, choosing another Solemn Wishes. At least that way we wouldn't be affected by Burning Land. I placed one card face down alongside my fourth unrevealed card and ended my turn.

When Dancer made her move, her team's Life Points decreased to 7500 due to Burning Land. Since we only had two monsters out, the Cyber Blader's ATK was doubled to 4200. She attacked, but that was when I revealed one of my face-downs, Back Attack Ambush. This immediately stopped the attack and, since my opponents controlled five monsters, Special Summoned five Ambush Tokens. I also gained the option of Tributing them to deal 500 damage to their team per token, which I did, bringing them down to 5000 Life Points. Dancer ended her turn there.

"Hah! Beautiful!" Carnivore shouted as she drew. Due to the Solemn Wishes I placed on her field, the damage she took from Burning Land was negated when she drew. From there, she used Polymerization to fuse the Gilasaurus on her field with the Kaitoptera in her Hand to create Horned Saurus (2000/1000). After that, she Summoned Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000), played Graceful Charity to draw three and discard two, followed by a second Graceful Charity, again drawing three and discarding two. Eight counters suddenly appeared on her egg, after which she Tributed it to Summon Ultimate Tyranno (3000/2200). The Battle Phase arrived, and Carnivore had to attack first with her Tyranno and had to target all enemy monsters once. First, she targeted the Gene-Warped Warwolf with 2300 ATK. Beast's team was down to 4700 Life Points. Then it was the Vorse Raider, knocking them down to 3600, then the Enraged Battle Ox which was destroyed, bringing them down to 2300. The second to last thing to go was the Exarion Universe, bringing them down to 1100 Life Points and finally, the Cyber Blader, which, since there were now three monsters, had its ATK returned to normal. It was destroyed and the controllers left on 200 Life Points, but then, with a clear field, Horned Saurus could attack directly, wiping them out.

"Hah! Killed in round two!" Carnivore taunted. With their defeat, Beast and Dancer gave up their Key, which we immediately inserted into the Lock that said 'R1' since we were on the red corner for that Duel. As the Door opened, we were presented with a corridor. Walking into the corridor, we saw at the end another Key. This one had been marked with the number 2, and above its original position, we could see a monitor. On this, it featured above each square with the numbers 1 through 16, we could see eight larger squares connected directly to the tops of each smaller square such that one large square stood on two small squares. Looking at the Large Square encompassing Squares 7 and 8, we saw that there was a diagonal line bisecting the Square from the top right hand corner to the bottom left. The top-left half was colored green, while the bottom-right half was colored red. Some squares just remained grey, though.

It occurred to me that this seemed to be a progress chart. From the eight Large Squares, a line sprouted off from the top horizontal line to join to one of four similar cubes on a second level such that there were two lines joined to each cube from the sides. From there, it became two, and then one.

So far, some of the results were intriguing. In the other Matches of this War, it looked like Cellblock 3 had beat Cellblock 4, as there was that diagonal line where the top left half was green and the other red, and Cellblock 15 had also won. The doors to the next Arena, however, wouldn't open until the conclusion of our opponent's Match. The Square on the screen above numbers 5 and 6 were still grey. However, after a bit more time, a diagonal line appeared, joining the top left and bottom right corners and bisecting the square. The top right half was colored green, while the other red, and that could only have meant one thing: Rebecca won her Duel since she was Cellblock 6, most likely.

From there, the doors to the next Arena opened, and the Square connecting us on the screen turned from black to grey. As we walked out into the Arena, I could soon see that it was indeed Rebecca that had pulled through… along with the girl Sky Fairy.


	13. Chapter 13: Gate of Lust

**Author's note: **Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards

* * *

Chapter 13: Gate of Lust

Everyone lined up at their corners, with Carnivore and I now being in the Blue Corner and Rebecca and Sky Fairy in the Red Corner. The latter of those two seemed to become angry with me, and after a few minutes, she started shouting at me, demanding to know what happened to the Beast. Carnivore just brushed her off, saying that it was inevitable that an animal like him would lose. This just caused her to become even angrier, demanding that the Duel begin and taking her place opposite me.

As the winning team with the most Life Points last Duel, we got to go first. With me, I placed three cards face-down and ended my turn. Rebecca took over, placing a monster face-down in Defense mode and also placing a card face-down. Carnivore just summoned a Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000) in Defense mode and Special Summoned a Gilasaurus (1400/400) from her hand, placed a card face-down and ended her turn. When Sky Fairy drew, she summoned Victoria (1800/1500), played Double Summon to summon another Victoria, placed a card face-down and ended her turn.

When my turn came, I placed another card face-down. With my current hand, there was nothing more I could do other than stall for time. When Rebecca took her turn, she flipped her face-down monster face-up: Jowls of Dark Demise (200/100), stealing Carnivore's Gilasaurus as a result and allowing it to attack directly. With that, Rebecca used the stolen monster to attack, but I revealed my Nightmare Mirror, negating that attack, dealing her team 1000 damage to come to 7000 and discarding the Rescuer from the Grave in my hand. At the end of the turn, the Gilasaurus returned to Carnivore's field.

Speaking of Carnivore, when she took her turn, she played Graceful Charity, drawing three cards, discarding two and giving Miracle Jurassic Egg four counters. Four more counters were placed on it when she used Polymerization to fuse Gilasaurus with Kaitoptera in her hand to form Horned Saurus (2000/1000). That was when the Egg was sacrificed to bring out Ultimate Tyranno (3000/2200)

"Now, since my Dinosaur is in Attack mode, it has to attack first," she began

"Reveal Trap! DNA Surgery!" Sky Fairy shouted. "This makes all monsters on the field one specific type, and I choose Fairy. Now the abilities of my two Victoria monsters mean you cannot attack a single thing!"

"Keep dreaming, stupid! My beast has to attack everything once each. Whether I cannot select other fairies as an attack target is irrelevant!"

"Reveal face-down card: Magical Arm Shield!" Rebecca shouted this time. "Now, I can make your Dinosaur instead attack a monster of yours that I choose. Now your attacking Dinosaur attacks your other Dinosaur, the Horned Saurus!"

"Not quite, Succubus. Reveal Jurassic Heart. This destroys any Spell or Trap targeting my Dinosaurs!"

The Ultimate Tyranno proceeded to destroy both Victorias, dealing 1200 damage both times, and finished with the Jowls of Dark Demise, albeit with it being in Defense mode, no damage was dealt on that count. Rebecca and Sky Fairy were on 4600 Life Points. From there, my partner attacked directly with Horned Saurus due to its Special Ability, bringing them down to 2600 Life Points. With that, she placed a card face-down to end her turn.

Sky Fairy drew, and summoned Bountiful Artemis, sacrificing it to summon Tethys, Goddess of Light (2400/1800). From there, she played Pot of Greed, using her new monster's ability to reveal the Gellenduo she drew and draw again, this time drawing Watapon (200/300) and Special Summoning it since it was added to her hand by a card effect. From there, it was a Double Summon and summoning of Gellenduo (1700/0). After that, she played Card of Demise, drawing five cards in exchange for discarding her hand in five turns. Then her Watapon was Tributed for Airknight Parshath (1900/1400) and since she had her two Victorias, a Watapon and a Bountiful Artemis in her Graveyard, 4 fairies, she could Special Summon Archlord Kristya (2800/2300) and return one monster from her Graveyard to her Hand. Sky Fairy played Forbidden Chalice, targeting her Archlord Kristya, negating its effects but giving it 400 extra ATK. Then, finally, she Tributed her Gellenduo, which could count for two Tributes, to summon Angel 07 (2500/1500) and give it the ability to stop all Effect Monsters from activating their effects.

The first card she attacked with was her Archlord, targeting Ultimate Tyranno and destroying it, dealing us 200 damage to come to 7800. From there, Angel 07 destroyed Horned Saurus, bringing us down to 7300, followed by Airknight Parshath attacking us to get us down to 5400 and grant her a card, then her Tethys, Goddess of Light brought us down to 3000 points.

When I drew, I started to see a possible victory plan. I played Graceful Charity to draw three cards and discard two, followed by a Pot of Greed for two cards, after which I used Spell Reproduction, discarding two Spells to get one back. There was nothing I could do to win this Duel right now, so I just used Emergency Provisions to destroy a set card and bring Carnivore and me to 4000 Life Points, after which I placed one of the cards I picked up via Pot of Greed face-down and played Burning Land, and although there was no Field Spell to destroy, everyone took 500 damage during their Standby Phases. I couldn't believe it, maybe my attempt at my first tactic gave way to a second, better tactic.

Rebecca took her turn, taking 500 damage for her team to come to 2100 Life Points, summoning Maiden in Love (400/300) and using Polymerization to fuse it with the Succubus Knight in her hand and form **Succubus Temptress** (2000/1500). Rebecca immediately equipped it with the Spell Card Excalibur, doubling its ATK to 4000, the exact value as our Life Points.

"Toby, I'm sorry, but in a war, this has to be done. My monster attacks directly!" she shouted.

"It's okay. I activate my face-down Back Attack Ambush, negating the attack, Special Summoning an amount of Ambush Tokens equal to monsters on the Field, which totals five, and gives me an option to Tribute any number to deal 500 points of damage to you per token," I stated. "Now, I Tribute all five tokens and deal you 2500 points of damage!"

The Life Points of Rebecca and Sky Fairy decreased to 0, after which the covering on the right-hand side locks were released. Despite Sky Fairy's objections, Rebecca handed over the Level 1 Key and Level 2 Key she had attained. Taking those keys, we inserted them into the exposed locks labeled B1 and B2, which made sense since we were in the Blue corner this time.

"Please… triumph in this war," Rebecca whispered to us before leaving, sounding somewhat hurt, but hopeful at the same time.

Walking into the exposed corridor, we found a Key labeled '3' and took it. The results screen was also showing updates, with this time showing the second row of squares, with four squares in that row, coloring in. Our square had a line bisecting it from the top left to the bottom right, with the top-right hand side colored green and the other red.

Waiting for the doors to open and let us through to match number 3, Carnivore and I discussed the last Duel. She was a little worried that I was slipping up, as I had failed to counter the attacks, but was ultimately satisfied with my performance. One particular thing she praised me on is 'making them think that we were defenseless, then bouncing back and snatching their victory right out from under them', her voice seemingly quite proud.

"By the way," I had to ask "…Rebecca seemed a bit upset about something."

"I'm not surprised," came Carnivore's response. "Three years ago, she declared war, hoping to escape. She got the first three keys, but during round three, she was defeated by the Tag Team of the Bombardier and Queen of Cellblock 3."

"It almost sounded like she wants us to experience what she couldn't, doesn't it?"

"I'd assume so. That defeat crushed her, from what I can tell. Although she went about her usual business, even when the next year came along with the next chance to do so, she didn't declare another war. At least this time wouldn't be so bad, I don't think."

"Why?"

"She knows us. She also knows that you are declaring war for the same reasons she was, and it would probably be better for her if we actually advanced, especially past where she failed."

"So, we need to defeat the Queen and the Bombardier that she fell to?"

"Speaking of which, it looks like we will indeed be facing them."

Looking at the Screen, I could see a square to the left of us. As a black line bisected it from the top left to bottom right corners, the top-right hand side had turned green and the other red. Tracing it back to the first row of squares, the victor from there appeared to be Cellblock 3.

"A slight word of warning, Toby:" Carnivore began "…the Bombardier and Queen are firm favorites to go to the finals of the ladder from what I was told."

It was somewhat scary, but we walked forward anyway as the doors opened to the next Duel Arena. As we waited, I spotted movement from the other door. A man came in; he featured a large moustache, but was bald otherwise, and also had a muscular appearance. Behind him was a woman who was also bald, but she featured green eye-shadow on her eyes. She also had a few tattoos, one of the most prominent being a large butterfly on her right upper arm. She was also quite muscular, and of all the people I met in the Void, I actually liked her the least so far. It was as if something about her, or both of them for that matter, was just plain revolting.

"So…" she began in a smug voice. "…you guys are the upstarts that started another war, eh?"

"What do you mean 'upstarts'?" I asked.

"If you are going to address me, pathetic little fruit fly, then you will address me as 'My Queen'!"

"Why?"

"Insubordination…" the man spoke. "We clearly have to straighten you out!"

"I don't understand."

"That's 'I don't understand, Bombardier' to you! I can clearly see that you're green, but that doesn't mean I'm going to go easy on you."

"Leave the kid alone, oh hairless blockheads!" Carnivore shouted. From there, tempers flared, and everyone was ready to Duel.

* * *

**End note:** The 'Lust' part of the Chapter Title comes from Rebecca's Title 'Succubus' and, in some way, her monster, due to a succubus being (from what I understand) a creature of lust.


	14. Chapter 14: Gate of Sloth

Chapter 14: Gate of Sloth

As the team with the most remaining Life Points last Duel, the Queen and Bombardier went first. The former started by summoning Parasite Caterpillar (800/800), playing Double Summon and summoning Pheromone Wasp before ending with two face-down cards. Carnivore took over, summoning a Mad Sword Beast (1400/1200), placing two cards face-down and ending her turn. When this 'Bombardier' took the reins, I could see that he seemed very confident. He summoned one KC-1 Crayton (1500/1200), played Graceful Charity to draw three and discard two, and used Double Summon, allowing him to Normal Summon again. He summoned a Cyber Soldier of Darkworld (1400/1200), placed 2 cards face-down and ended his turn. When it came to me, I had a bit of a bad feeling, so I placed two cards face-down and ended my turn.

The Queen went again, this time summoning Leghul (300/350) and using it to attack us directly, taking us down to 7700 Life Points. I didn't want to stop the attack, as I felt that the Bombardier had other, stronger things on his field.

When Carnivore took her turn, she Special Summoned two copies of Gilasaurus (1400/1400) from her Hand and Normal Summoned Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000). She played Card of Sanctity to give everyone a six-card hand, Tributed one Gilasaurus to summon Super-Ancient Dinobeast (2700/1400), and finally, played the Field Spell Jurassic World, increasing the ATK and DEF of all Dinosaurs by 300. First, she attacked Bombardier's KC-1 Crayton with her now 1700 ATK Mad Sword Beast, but Call of the Earthbound revealed itself on the Queen's side of the field and instead forced it to attack the Parasite Caterpillar. From there, the target equipped itself to the dinosaur, enveloping it in a cocoon and stopping it from attacking.

She pressed on with Gilasaurus this time, attacking Bombardier's monster again, but this time one of _his_ traps revealed itself: Tank Corp. This Special Summoned three Tank Tokens, giving the KC-1 Crayton tank 1500 extra ATK, allowing it to counterattack and deal us 1300 damage to come to 6400. Finally, she attacked with her Dinobeast, settling for a draw and destroying both monsters. A third card activated, Queen's Turn Jump, skipping ahead three turns, fully infecting Carnivore's monster and replacing it with a Poison Butterfly (2700/1800). By this time, her Egg had ten counters on it, and she Tributed it to summon Super Conductor Tyranno (3300/1400) which became (3600/1700). Since she already attacked, however, she had to end her turn and take 500 damage for us to come to 5900.

On Bombardier's turn, he played Spell Reproduction, discarding two spells to retrieve one from his Graveyard, and from there, summoned Science Soldier (800/800). At that point, he played Junk Dealer to return his KC-1 Crayton to the field with half its ATK (750/1200) but which was boosted by 500 for each Tank Token, bringing it up to 2250 ATK. When I took over, my move might have sounded strange: I activated my Scapegoat Spell Card, Summoning four meatshields. That was when I used my Token Thanksgiving, destroying all tokens including the tanks and gaining 800 points for each one. That put my team from 5900 to 14500 Life Points, and I ended my turn there. Something told me not to play anything more until my next turn.

Queen went again, saying that she was tired of playing around with the cockroaches. Her first move was to play the Spell Card Insect Barrier, stopping all attacks against her by Insect monsters, then she Tributed her Pheromone Wasp and Leghul to summon Insect Queen (2200/2400), after which she banished those same monsters from her Graveyard to Special Summon Doom Dozer (2800/2600). Her Insect Queen, since there were three Insects on the field, gained 600 Attack points to come to 2800.

Carnivore took her turn and attacked the Queen's Doom Dozer with her Dinosaur, but was stopped when she revealed DNA Surgery, declaring that everything was now an Insect, and thus, stopped by Insect Barrier. What was more was that, now due to the Dinosaur and Soldier being Insects, not only was her Field Spell useless, but Insect Queen's ATK became 3200. Carnivore ended her turn, with our Life Points becoming 14000 due to the butterfly.

Bombardier took over at that point, summoning Science Soldier (800/800) and using Double Summon, summoning Kinetic Soldier (1350/1800). His other face-down activated then: Soldier Revolt. In exchange for not conducting his Battle Phase this turn, the Bombardier could send all of the cards in my and Carnivore's hands and on the field to the Graveyard. I knew it! I realized only just now, though, that my face-down only worked against Spell cards which made me discard my Hand and not Trap Cards. However, he wasn't done: he played his Sky Union, Tributing his three Soldiers to summon Air Fortress Ziggurat (2500/2000). I was amazed at the size of that thing, it looked like the room, filled with at least fifteen Duel Arenas, could barely contain the massive fortress. Thankfully, he had to end his turn, although he did get a Robot Token (0/0).

I drew, and this card saved both me and Carnivore: Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until holding six cards. Carnivore looked somewhat displeased with her new hand though, and to be quite honest, my hand wasn't good either. That was why I activated Card Destruction to make everyone discard their Hand and draw the same number of cards discarded. My new hand was much better. I played my Destiny Activator, sending the top card of my Deck to my Graveyard and waiting for the magic to happen. After that came Purity of the Cemetery. Now, with one card in my hand, I could essentially lock down their efforts to attack us: Messenger of Peace. I played it, stopping all monsters with 1500 or more ATK from declaring an Attack. With one card placed face-down, I ended my turn

The Queen drew, and due to my Destiny Activator, she had to show me what she drew: the Spell Card Cell Division. Since the card sent was a Spell Card as well, more specifically Rescuer from the Grave, her team's Life Points were halved to 4000 and Destiny Activator was destroyed. Purity of the Cemetery kicked in, targeting her Graveyard and, since she had five monsters in said Graveyard, dealt her 500 damage to come to 3500. She placed two cards face-down and played Emergency Provisions, intending to destroy them to regain 2000 Life Points, but that was when I revealed my face-down Bad Reaction to Simochi, instead removing those 2000 Life Points from her team's Life Total to leave them on 1500. Her rage only increased, and she used Heavy Storm to rid the field of Spells and Traps, allowing her monsters to attack. With his permission, she sacrificed Bombardier's Robot Token to allow her Insect Queen to attack. This thing was now a 2600 point monster heading straight for us.

"Don't do anything yet…" Carnivore spoke. The Insect lunged forward and struck us, followed by Doom Dozer, with the same amount of ATK. In total, we took 5400 points of damage to bring us down to 9100 Life Points.

When Carnivore drew, she grinned heavily. Her first card was Soul Release, allowing her to remove up to 5 card in anyone's Graveyard from play. She removed five Dinosaurs in her Graveyard from play, then used another Soul Release, removing three more. From there, she summoned Tyranno Infinity (?/0) and had it gain ATK equal to the number of her Dinosaurs removed from play x1000, bringing it up to 8000 points. Since there was no more Insect Barrier or DNA Surgery keeping her pinned, she attacked the 2600 point Insect Queen, shouting "Open wide!" With that, they lost their last 1500 Life Points and the Duel, forcing them to surrender their Keys and revealing the Lock to the right-hand side of the door forward.

"You two may be green, but you know how to pack a bloody good punch!" Bombardier noted as they surrendered all three of their Keys.

"Don't get too hopeful though," Queen continued. "Ten to one, you'll lose at the next gate."

"Keep talking…" Carnivore dismissed as she inserted their three Keys into the Locks. Once the door opened, I waved goodbye to my opponents and followed her into the passage, which at the end took a right turn instead of a left.

At the turning, the screen was there, as was a Key labeled '4', but looking at the third row of squares, in which there were two, the other square was already colored. The line bisecting the square into green upper-right half and red lower-left half led all the way back to Cellblock 15.

"Nightshade and Hunter-Killer, eh? This is going to get ugly," Carnivore mentioned as we got the Key.

* * *

**End note:** I had quite a bit of difficulty naming this chapter. I eventually settled on 'sloth' because some monsters summoned in this Duel just didn't do anything.


	15. Chapter 15: Gate of Envy

**Author's note: **Any cards highlighted in bold aren't actual Yugioh cards.

* * *

Chapter 15: Gate of Envy

In the fourth Duel Arena, Carnivore and I were selected to be in the Red Corner. As for our opponents, one had jagged hair that flowed down past his shoulders, with it being purple down the center, but bright green at the sides. He also had thick dark purple lines below his eyes, and thick dark green lines below those. His companion also had long-ish hair, but it only flowed down just before meeting his shoulders, and it was a strange bronze color.

"Carnivore-dono," the former spoke, "…it is quite unusual for you to declare war."

"A few things happened, Nightshade," Carnivore responded. So that purple and green-haired man was Nightshade? Then that had to mean the other one was Hunter-killer.

"Involving the boy beside you?"

"How could you-?"

"I could see it in your eyes, Carnivore. I shall warn you, though, beyond this arena lie the three Gatekeepers. Every time we have made it to them, we have been soundly defeated."

"Every time we have tried to stand up to the Gatekeepers…" Hunter-killer spoke for the first time, "…they push us back down."

"We will defeat them!" I stated.

"I do not believe you, child. If you are truly serious about toppling the Gatekeepers, then prove it to us by defeating us in this Duel and claiming our Keys."

From there, the Duel began with Nightshade summoning Samsara Lotus (0/0), after which he placed a card face-down. I was the next to go, so I placed three cards face-down and ended my turn. During Hunter-killer's turn, the Field Spell Fortissimo the Mobile Fortress came into play and even though the gun-metal grey surroundings from the Field Spell looked ominous, it was still a nice change to the depressing blackness of everything. From there came a Meklord Army of Skiel (1200/1000), Special Summoned as a result of the Spell's effect. This was followed by a Meklord Army of Wisel (1800/0) and a face-down card. Carnivore, on her turn, Special Summoned a Gilasaurus (1400/400) from her hand and Normal Summoned Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000). Just as she finished Summoning, though, the Continuous Trap Level Cannon revealed itself, dealing damage to a player if he or she summoned a monster, with the damage being 200 points per Monster Level. So, for her first monster, Carnivore had 600 damage coming at the team, and for her second, 800, totaling 1400, leaving us on 6600 Life Points before one attack was even made. She ended her turn with two face-down cards, after which she took 100 damage from another effect of Fortissimo, leaving us on 6500 Life Points.

Nightshade drew and was due to take 1000 damage from Samsara Lotus, but Meklord Army of Skiel, since he and its controller were sharing Life Points, negated any damage of 1000 or more. He summoned Evil Thorn (100/300), which caused his team to take 200 damage from Level Cannon to come to 7800 Life Points. From there, he Tributed it to deal us 300 points of damage (6200) and Special Summon two more from his Deck, being brought down to 7400 Life Points due to Level Cannon.

"It's coming!" Carnivore shouted

"Yes," Nightshade spoke. "I Tribute my two Evil Thorns to summon Yubel." The monstrous demoness appeared with 0 ATK and DEF. Level Cannon was also due to inflict 2000 damage to Nightshade's Team, but Hunter-killer's Meklord Army of Skiel negated any effect damage over 1000 since they were sharing Life Points. From there, the Trap Zero Sprite was revealed, equipping to Yubel, reducing its ATK to 0 (not that there was a difference) and allowed it to attack twice. Yubel was sent to attack Gilasaurus, and that was when its Special Ability kicked in: we took the Battle Damage that they were supposed to have taken from that attack. Carnivore revealed Depth Amulet, discarding a card from her Hand to negate the attack. Miracle Jurassic Egg also gained two counters. However, Nightshade wasn't done, as Zero Sprite allowed him a second attack with Yubel. Again, Carnivore used Depth Amulet to negate the attack at the cost of discarding a card and boosting the counters on Miracle Jurassic Egg. At the end of his turn, he tributed Samsara Lotus to keep Yubel on the field and also took 100 damage from Fortissimo to come to 7300 Life Points.

My turn came, and I needed to Summon a Machine-type Monster to stop Fortissimo's attack. To that effect, I summoned my Plasma Eel (400/1200) and also placed one more card face-down. I had a feeling that things were going to get pear-shaped very fast, so I had to have a little contingency plan. Due to my Plasma Eel being a Machine, I didn't take any damage from Fortissimo.

My fears were correct, however. After Hunter-killer Summoned Meklord Army of Granel (1600/1200) and took 800 damage from his own Level Cannon to come to 6500 Life Points, he used its effect to halve Plasma Eel's ATK to 200. From there, he Special Summoned _his_ ace monster, Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk (0/0), whose ATK became equal to the combined ATK of all of his Attack mode Machine monsters. This meant that, with Wisel's 1800 ATK, Skiel's 1200 ATK and Granel's 1600, this meant that Asterisk had 4600 ATK and DEF. He immediately attacked my Attack mode Plasma Eel with Skiel, but that was when I revealed Staunch Defender, forcing all of my opponent's Monsters to attack that monster. Disregarding the damage absorbed by my Eel, I was up against 4400 ATK, 1000 ATK, 1400 ATK and 1600 ATK from Hunter-Killer, totaling 8400. Nightshade's side dealt me an extra 200 damage as Yubel attacked my Eel and used its ability. I also revealed another face-down; Rainbow Life, discarding a card to instead gain the Damage as Life Points, meaning that we now had 14600 Life Points to boast about. Hunter-killer ended with the Continuous Spell Card Lock-On Laser, which would deal us 200 damage for Setting any cards, and one set card.

Carnivore drew, and seeing as she was running out of cards in her hand, activated Card of Sanctity to give everyone six cards. From there, it was Card Destruction, with everyone throwing away their hand to draw an equal number of cards.

"Now, I'd say it's time to destroy Asterisk!" she shouted.

"Wait! Rather get rid of Yubel!" I shouted back. There was something I needed to try. During my time in the Void, I heard a rumor that Asterisk could sacrifice a monster to negate its destruction.

"Fine. I activate Ring of Destruction, using it on Yubel to destroy it and deal damage to both players, which in this case equals 0."

"Yubel has another ability which activates," Nightshade spoke as Yubel disintegrated into smoke. "If Yubel is destroyed by any effect other than its own, Yubel – Terror Incarnate is Special Summoned to the Field." The smoke reformed into the black two-headed dragon as its stats of (0/0) were displayed. Level Cannon was due to activate again, but the damage was above 1000, meaning that Meklord Army of Skiel could negate it completely. Carnivore wasn't done yet: she played the continuous Spell Card **Jurassic Meat Shields**. From there, we took 100 damage from Fortissimo as she didn't have a Machine-type Monster, so we were on 14500 Life Points.

Nightshade, from what I could tell, was intrigued. First, he played a Continuous Spell Card of his own: **Voluntary Involvement**, a Tag-Duel Only Spell Card that was quite rare, as far as I could tell. It allowed your partner to choose if any effects from your cards affected his monsters. I couldn't tell why at present, though. He Special Summoned Grinder Golem (3000/300), due to its own ability, on Carnivore's side of the field and two Grinder Tokens (0/0) on his own side. Those summons caused us to take 1600 damage from Level Cannon to put is onto 12900, and he took 400 damage to come to 6100. From there, he attacked again with Yubel – Terror Incarnate, and it retained the original ability of not being able to be destroyed by battle and dealing the Battle Damage to the opponent instead. His target was the Grinder Golem, meaning we took 3000 damage to come to 9900. After he set two cards face-down, it became clear why he used his other Spell Card: Yubel – Terror Incarnate destroyed all monsters on his side of the field to destroy an equivalent number on his opponent's side of the field. This Spell Card allowed Hunter-killer to dictate whether his Meklords would be a part of this or not, and ultimately, he chose to preserve them. The revived Samsara Lotus (which damaged his team by 200 points to come to 5900 due to Level Cannon) and the Grinder Tokens were destroyed, and there were 4 monsters on our side of the field. Carnivore immediately sent two Cards to her Graveyard, and shields formed around her Miracle Jurassic Egg and my Plasma Eel, to which blasts of energy were directed. A third blast got sent at Gilasaurus, which disintegrated.

"Your card interests me. What does it do?" Nightshade spoke in awe.

"Well…" Carnivore explained, "…whenever an effect that destroys monsters is activated, if one of those monsters is a Dinosaur-type, **Jurassic Meat Shields **gives me the option of discarding a Dinosaur-type Monster from my Hand to negate destruction of any creatures, Dinosaur or otherwise, I choose. So, only my Gilasaurus bit the dust."

It came to my turn now. I activated my Machine Duplication, targeting and Special Summoning two more Plasma Eels, taking 1600 damage from Level Cannon since I summoned two Level 4 monsters. We were on 8300 Life Points as a result. Those Eels I had latch onto Meklord Emperors Granel and Wisel, while my main Eel I had latch onto Skiel.

"I see what your plan is now! Reveal Trap: Skull Lair," Carnivore shouted. "Now I can remove any number of cards in my Graveyard from play to destroy a monster with an equivalent Level. I remove ten out of eleven Monsters in my Graveyard to destroy Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk!"

"I Tribute Meklord Army of-" Hunter-killer began

"Oh no you don't. My little friend's Plasma Eels, by latching onto your monsters, have made sure that they cannot be Tributed!"

I saw another card in my Hand which might help, so I Set it (bringing us to 8100 Life Points due to Lock-On Laser) and returned the Plasma Eel on Skiel to my field to end my turn. As Hunter-killer began his turn, I revealed my card: Crystal Seal, targeting his Meklord Army of Skiel. As long as this card was in play, my target couldn't attack, change battle position, activate abilities or protect his Life Points. He revealed his face-down Chaos Infinity, allowing him to change all Defense mode monsters he had to Attack mode and Special Summon a monster from his Deck and Graveyard. From his Deck, he summoned Meklord Astro Mekanikle (4000/4000), and from his Graveyard, Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk (0/0), the latter of which gained 8600 ATK and DEF. That, however, caused his team to take 3200 damage from Level Cannon, bringing them to 2700, as Skiel's ability couldn't activate. From there, he used Giant Trunade to return all Spell and Trap Cards to their owner's hands. For him, Chaos Infinity left the field, meaning its secondary effect of destruction didn't resolve. Fortissimo was also gone, along with Level Cannon and Lock-On Laser. For me, it meant that Machine Duplication, Crystal Seal and my two face-downs returned to my Hand. Carnivore lost her Skull Lair, **Jurassic Meat Shields** and Depth Amulet, and Nightshade lost his two face-downs.

After that, he attacked my one Plasma Eel with his Asterisk monster, but I wasn't completely defenseless yet. Although I had no face-downs, Carnivore destroying my last hand actually proved beneficial, as I had lost my Rescuer from the Grave that way. That card activated from my Graveyard, banishing five other cards to end the Battle Phase. From there, he replayed Fortissimo and Lock-On Laser, along with one face-down I could guess was Level Cannon to end his turn.

When Carnivore started her turn, she first played Heavy Storm to destroy all Spells and Traps on the field, destroying Fortissimo, Lock-On Laser and the face-down Hunter-killer planted. After that, she placed two cards face-down and Summoned her Tyranno Infinity (?/0). That card gained 1000 ATK for each Dinosaur she removed from play, which amounted to ten and equaled 10000 ATK. That was when she attacked Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk with 8600 ATK, and although the attack went through and brought them down to 1100, Meklord Army of Skiel was Tributed to keep it alive, albeit only with 7400 ATK. Seeing nothing else she could do, she ended her turn.

Nightshade's turn was interesting: he used his own Ring of Destruction to destroy Yubel – Teror Incarnate, although this let him summon Yubel – The Ultimate Nightmare (0/0). He attacked with his new monster, but Carnivore revealed her Depth Amulet again, discarding a card to stop the attack before it hit its target of Tyranno Infinity and dealt us a fatal 10000 damage. With nothing more he could do, he ended his turn

During my turn, I placed two cards face-down just in case, and ended my turn. Those cards were my two original face-downs, which I was saving for when they would be effective. When Hunter-Killer moved again, he attacked my lone Plasma Eel with Asterisk, presumably hoping to finish us, but that was when I revealed my Nightmare Mirror, discarding one card to stop the attack and deal them 1000 damage to come to 100. My other face-down also activated: Cemetery Bomb, dealing 100 damage for each monster in their Graveyards. Hunter-killer's Graveyard only had Meklord Army of Skiel as far as I knew (although that alone was enough), but Nightshade had Samsara Lotus in there along with three Evil Thorns, so they lost what Life Points they had on the spot.


	16. Chapter 16: Gate of Greed

Chapter 16: Gate of Greed

As the Life Points of Nightshade and Hunter-killer reached 0, the latter spoke, saying "It appears you are a lot stronger than we gave you credit for."

"Indeed," Nightshade continued, handing over the four Keys they had acquired. "Now that you have proven your strength to us, you may defeat the Gatekeepers with our blessing. Just be warned, they are exceptionally tough to beat."

"We'll keep that in mind," Carnivore told them as she inserted their Keys into the Locks. From there, we walked through the Door with our own four Keys in hand, although this time, the corridor split into three passages at the end. Coming to the end of the black-colored part of the corridor, we saw a screen. On the screen, we saw the exact same progress chart as before. This time, there was only one square, and it was bisected from the top-right hand corner to the bottom left. The top-left hand corner was colored green, while the bottom-right was red. There was something else, what seemed like a grey horizontal/vertical cross, with a diagonal cross cutting the section into 4 from the center, on top of the square. At the left end of the horizontal cross was a blue square, at the top end was a yellow, and at the right end was a pure red square, not like the lightish red used for the other squares. Below all of that was a black text box with words typed on it.

"Congratulations for acquiring your first four Keys. These four Keys give you the right to challenge the Gatekeepers, the holders of the last three Keys you need to acquire. Challenge the Gatekeepers as you see fit, but know that one defeat will still result in the surrender of all Keys you have acquired and your subsequent declaration of Defeat. Should you defeat all three Gatekeepers, you can declare Victory. Your Duels will now be conducted as 2vs1 Duels, giving you separate Life Totals."

From there, the corridors branching off to our left, ahead and right were colored blue, yellow and red respectively. "So, what now, Carnivore?" I asked.

"I don't know," she replied. "This is the first time I've fought in one of these Wars, much less reached these Gatekeepers. I assume that the opponents we fight are on the other side of each door."

"Should we perhaps start with the Blue corridor then?"

"It's as good an idea as any at this stage."

So, we were walking down the blue corridor, and found that it led through a door into a blue-colored Duel Arena. A man dressed in a blue cloak was waiting for us. "So, I finally get to battle, eh?" he spoke, yawning. "Since you are the challengers, you guys get to go first."

I started the match, placing two cards face-down on the field. Carnivore summoned a Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000) and also placed two cards face-down. The Blue Gatekeeper played Dark World Dealings, forcing everyone to draw one card and then discard one card. Due to the monster being discarded to the Graveyard by a card effect, Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World (1600/1300) was Special Summoned to the field. Also, the card Carnivore discarded was a monster, causing her Egg to gain two counters. From there, he Special Summoned Grinder Golem (3000/300) on my side of the field, and Special Summoned two Grinder Tokens (0/0) on his own. For his third action, he Tributed his Grinder Tokens and Beiige to summon Raviel, Lord of Phantasms (4000/4000). To end his turn, he Normal Summoned Doomcaliber Knight (1900/1800).

When it came to my turn, I wasn't sure what to do. Carnivore had, before declaring war, told me rumors of the Sacred Beasts of the Gatekeepers, and how they were very powerful monsters. I didn't know what effects Raviel had, so I just placed one more card face-down and ended my turn.

Carnivore drew, Special Summoned a Gilasaurus (1400/400) from her Hand, and used Polymerization, fusing it and the Kaitoptera in her Hand to form Horned Saurus (2000/1000), adding four counters to her Egg in the process. This, however, also activated Raviel's ability, Special Summoning two 'Phantasm Tokens (1000/1000). She then used its ability to attack directly on the turn it was Fusion Summoned, bringing the Gatekeeper down to 2000 Life Points. Her turn ended there.

The Gatekeeper drew, and activated another effect of Raviel: by Tributing any number of monsters, he could add their combined original ATK to Raviel's total ATK. The monsters sacrificed were the two Phantasm Tokens, bringing Raviel up to 6000 ATK. I could guess what would happen then: the Gatekeeper had Raviel attack Horned Saurus. If Carnivore took the hit, she was gone. Right then, however, she activated her face-down Depth Amulet, discarding one card to negate the attack, also adding two counters to her Egg. After this, the Gatekeeper summoned Phantom Skyblaster (1100/800), also Special Summoning two 'Skyblaster Tokens' (500/500) as a result of its ability. Its other effect activated, dealing 300 damage to his opponent for each Skyblaster monster he controlled. In this case, he chose to deal 900 damage to me, bringing me down to 3100 Life Points. After that, he ended his turn.

As my turn arrived, I revealed the face-down I placed last turn: Altar for Tribute. This destroyed one monster on my field to give me Life Points equal to its ATK. Since there was only the Grinder Golem on my field, it was destroyed, bringing me to 6100. So far, I was relatively happy with what I had face-down, although I was worried about what else the Gatekeeper could do. I ended my turn there. One of my two face-downs, Draining Shield, would hopefully help me survive Raviel's attack should it come after me.

Carnivore drew, and activated the ability of her Miracle Jurassic Egg. Since it had eight counters, she could Tribute it to summon a Level 8 or lower monster from her Deck. She Summoned her Super Conductor Tyranno (3300/1400) and activated its effect, destroying Horned Saurus to deal 1000 damage to the Gatekeeper and put him on 1000. She ended her turn there. That was perfect; if he attacked now, he was a goner.

The Gatekeeper drew, and activated Card Sanctity, giving everyone a six-card hand. For his second move, he Tributed a Skyblaster Token to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch (2400/1000) and activated its ability, banishing Carnivore's Depth Amulet. Another Skyblaster Token was Tributed to Summon Doom Shaman (2400/2000). His Phantom Skyblaster was then Tributed to Summon Sillva, Warlord of Dark World (2300/1400). That strategy completely eluded me, why was he rounding up so many monsters? If he somehow succeeds in destroying one of us, then the other would just take him out.

He attacked Carnivore's Super Conductor Tyranno with Raviel, not activating its ability. I, however, activated my other face-down; Nightmare Mirror. By discarding a card, I could negate the attack and deal him 1000 damage, enough to defeat him.

"Aw, damn it, kid, I could have won that turn!" he shouted. "You sure know how to snatch a victory right out from under people!"

"How did I stop a victory?" I asked.

"Once I destroyed Carnivore's monster and used my other monsters to knock you out the game, I would have activated my Impact Revive to restore her monster with 500 extra ATK and grant me a second Battle Phase. Then I could have used Raviel's ability to knock her out the game! That's the price I pay for not Dueling nowadays, eh?"

"Okay, now that we have won…"

"Yes, here is the Blue Key," the Gatekeeper handed us his Key, which was a deep blue color. "Since we came, this is the first time any of us has been defeated. But, like I said, I guess that's my punishment for taking it easy and grabbing all of the comfort offered to me. A slight word of warning: the other two Gatekeepers are quite vicious. I don't think you can expect the same easy ride you got from me."

The Door through which we came in reopened at that point, and we exited back into the corridor.


	17. Chapter 17: Gate of Wrath

**Author's note:** Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards.

* * *

Chapter 17: Gate of Wrath

Returning to the main screen with our five Keys, we saw that part of the grey cross had turned green. The section branching off to the blue square was colored green, while the other three segments of the cross were still grey.

"Where now?" I asked.

"That is entirely up to you, though the battles will still be difficult," came Carnivore's response. I knew that we were probably going to run up against one of those Sacred Beasts anyway, so…

"Make it yellow."

"Yellow it is."

From there, we walked down the Yellow-colored corridor, which would have been straight if coming from the direction of Nightshade and Hunter-killer. Going through the door, we were instead greeted with a Yellow Arena and a woman in a yellow cloak.

"Are you one of the Gatekeepers?" I asked her

"Yes. Can we start the Duel now? I've got meat to put through the grinder!" she sighed, sounding somewhat irritated, yet excited at the same time.

With that, we began. I started again by placing a card face-down. Carnivore, strangely, also placed a card face-down without summoning anything. This Gatekeeper started out with the Continuous Spell Card Crystal Tree. From there, she played Graceful Charity to draw three cards and discard two, then used Crystal Blessing, targeting two Crystal Beast monsters in the Graveyard and Special Summoning them in the Spell and Trap Card Zone as Continuous Spell Cards, reviving Crystal Beast Topaz Tiger (1600/1000) and Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth (1700/1600). Once that was done, she declared that she was Tributing three Spell Cards to summon Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/4000), and with that, two of her Crystal Beasts disappeared, as did Crystal Tree, and were replaced by the giant yellow monster. The only thing that saved us from a direct attack was the rule forbidding attacks for the first round.

Looking at my hand, it wasn't really good. My face-down earlier proved useless; Joyful Doom. That wasn't of any help as the monsters were by then Spell Cards. The only thing I could do was Set another face-down and end my turn.

Carnivore drew, and summoned Miracle Jurassic Egg. Her second card was Card Destruction, making everyone discard their hand and draw an equal amount of cards. That in turn, increased the counters on her Miracle Jurassic Egg all the way to eight. From there, she Tributed it to Summon from her Deck her Super Conductor Tyranno (3300/1400) and ended her turn.

When the Gatekeeper drew, things got really ugly. She Special Summoned Grinder Golem (3000/300) to my side of the field and gained two Grinder Tokens (0/0) on her side.

"Now, young nameless boy, you will suffer for daring to challenge us! Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder attacks Grinder Golem!" she shouted. Her monster destroyed mine, bringing me down to 3000 Life Points, and horribly electrocuting me at the same time. Once the monster was gone, the shock increased and forced me onto the ground. As I got up, feeling really numb, I saw that I had lost another 1000 Life Points.

"Is… is that Hamon's ability?" I asked, gasping for air.

"Indeed, if it destroys a monster by battle, the controller takes 1000 points of extra damage! But that's not all. I'll make sure you drop dead soon!"

From there, she played Impact Revive, reviving a monster destroyed this turn with a 500 ATK boost, choosing the Grinder Golem I had lost. Not only that, but that also allowed her to attack again. Once again, Hamon destroyed the Golem, and once again, its ability activated, in total dealing 1500 damage to me. I was on the floor, barely able to hold my hand of cards, and with only 500 Life Points left. Thankfully, she had to end her turn.

I just managed to stand up, and activated the second card I had Set in this Duel: Scapegoat, giving me four Sheep Tokens. From there, I used another card, Token Thanksgiving, destroying all Tokens and giving me 800 Life Points for each one. In total, my Sheep Tokens and the Gatekeeper's Grinder Tokens were destroyed, giving me 4800 Life Points to put me on 5300 and also restoring some of my strength in the process. Finally, my new Hand was something I could work with. I placed two cards face-down to end my turn.

"Now is when you pay for what you did just now, Gatekeeper bitch!" Carnivore shouted as she drew her card. She Special Summoned a Gilasaurus (1400/400) from her Hand and fused it with her Kaitoptera (also in her hand) to form Horned Saurus (2000/1000). At that point, she also activated Card of Demise to draw until she had five cards on condition that she discard her hand in five turns. That was followed by her **Torturous Jurassic Hunger** Continuous Spell Card, reducing the DEF of all of her Dinosaur monsters to 0, but increasing their ATK by the amount of DEF lost. Now, Horned Saurus was with 3000 ATK and 0 DEF, while her Super Conductor Tyranno was with 4700 ATK. She Summoned her Babycerasaurus () and activated the ability of Super Conductor Tyranno; by destroying a monster, she could damage the Gatekeeper by 1000 points. Her Babycerasaurus was the Tribute for this ability, and that Gatekeeper was on 3000 Life Points (with her also gaining Tyranno Infinity at 0 ATK). From there, she used the ability of her Horned Saurus to attack directly on the turn it was Fusion Summoned. Since it was powered up by her Spell Card, there was nothing the Gatekeeper could do to prevent losing her remaining 3000 points.

"Now give us your Key!" Carnivore's voice was filled with malice. In some respect, it was scarier than our first meeting

"Fine! Here!" the Gatekeeper obliged. "Don't think you will survive the last Gatekeeper if you can barely stand up to me, little piece of trash!"

It was at that point that Carnivore kneed her in the stomach and quickly motioned me back into the corridor. "You okay?"

"Somehow," I spoke. Although the healing effect of Token Thanksgiving had made me recover somewhat, I was still a little damaged.

"Don't worry, we only have one more Gatekeeper to trounce, then we should hopefully be home free."

Looking at the most recently acquired key, colored pure yellow, I hoped that what Carnivore said was the case.


	18. Chapter 18: Gate of Gluttony

Chapter 18: Gate of Gluttony

Returning to the central area of the corridors, we saw on the monitors that the top section of the cross connecting to the yellow square had been colored green. The last Gatekeeper was through the red-colored corridor, branching off to the right of the way when we went in there originally, so it was pretty obvious where we needed to go next.

As I came to expect, the red corridor led into a red Duel Arena, with a man in red robes and a red Duel Disk.

"Ah, I think I remember you," Carnivore stated. "You're the Glutton, right?"

"Interesting, somebody knows my name. Just call me Red, though," the Gatekeeper replied. "So, you've taken out Blue and Yellow, eh?"

As she dealt the finishing blow last time, Carnivore went first. She Special Summoned a Gilasaurus (1400/400) and Summoned a Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000), ending with a face-down card. I drew, and this hand was definitely something I could work with. I placed two cards face-down. When the Gatekeeper took his turn, he placed four cards face-down and activated his Graceful Charity, allowing him to draw three cards but discard two from his Hand. As he drew the three, he grinned. I could just tell that his Sacred Beast was coming. He sent two cards to the Graveyard, and from there, he sacrificed his three Trap Cards to summon Uria, Lord of Searing Flames (0/0). Before ending his turn, he announced that his monster gained 1000 ATK for each Trap Card in his Graveyard. Since he had five, that meant his monster had 5000 ATK. Finally, Uria's ability activated, allowing the Gatekeeper to destroy a face-down card, destroying Carnivore's set card.

Carnivore drew, and activated Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until holding six cards. From there, it was a Pot of Greed for two free cards, and Card Destruction, forcing everyone to discard their hand and draw the same number of cards discarded. This, in turn, led to twelve counters being placed on her Miracle Jurassic Egg, since she got rid of six monsters. However, Uria's Attack power also increased to 8000. For her third move, she used Polymerization to fuse her Gilasaurus with the Kaitoptera in her hand and form Horned Saurus (2000/1000). She attacked directly due to its ability, but was stopped by the one card that _wasn't_ Tributed for Uria: Negate Attack, ending the Battle Phase and increasing the monster's power to 9000. Lastly, she Tributed her Miracle Jurassic Egg to summon Super Conductor Tyranno from her Deck and activated its ability; by destroying a monster, she could deal the Gatekeeper 1000 points of damage. She destroyed Horned Saurus to get him down to 3000 Life Points, set a card face-down and ended her turn.

As I began my turn, I knew we weren't in a situation to make careless mistakes. One attack penetrating meant that we were goners. Carnivore revealed her face-down at that point; Skull Lair, allowing her to remove monsters in her Graveyard from the game to destroy a monster with a Level equal to the number of cards removed this way. She removed ten cards from play via this effect to destroy Uria. I breathed a sigh of relief seeing as this guy's ace monster was gone, but I couldn't relax just yet, so I set one more card face-down and ended my turn.

The Gatekeeper began his turn, and I was glad I didn't let up. He sent a Trap Card from his Hand to his Graveyard to revive Uria, this time with 10000 ATK. First, he activated its effect to destroy a face-down, targeting one of mine, happening to pick my face-down Nightmare Mirror. He then attacked Carnivore's monster, but I revealed my Draining Shield, negating its ATK and gaining 10000 Life Points in the process to come to 14000.

Carnivore drew, and summoned Babycerasaurus (500/500). That was when she activated the ability of Super Conductor Tyranno, destroying a monster to deal 1000 damage to the opponent. The monster chosen was Babycerasaurus, and since it was destroyed by a card effect, its own ability activated, allowing for the Special Summon of a Level 4 or lower Dinosaur from her Deck, with her choosing Tyranno Infinity (?/0). The Gatekeeper was now on 2000 Life Points, and Carnivore's new monster's ATK was 10000, the same as Uria. I had to assume she didn't have a way to power up her card, as she chose to attack Uria on the spot, destroying both cards. She placed one card face-down and ended her turn.

I couldn't think why she did that. Was she trying to find the weakness of the monster? In that case, why would she settle for a draw? I drew, and got Rainbow Life. I couldn't let up, however, so I Set the card and ended my turn.

As predicted, the Gatekeeper revived Uria by discarding a Trap Card. Now, his monster was at 11000 points. That thing just kept getting more and more powerful. Sure, he was only using one monster, but he could practically bring that back ad infinitum. Wait… one monster? Could that be it? Could that have been Uria's weakness? Uria attacked me directly this time, using its ability to destroy my set Rainbow Life, but that was when Carnivore revealed her Mirror Force, destroying the beast again.

When Carnivore took her turn, the only thing she did was use Monster Reborn to revive her Tyranno Infinity, with its 10000 ATK. That was still much less than Uria's though, unless, if I could just get the card I needed with my next draw. She ended her turn there.

My turn came, and I drew a Pot of Greed. Lovely. Playing it, however, I got the card I needed: Nibelung's Treasure. Playing that, I drew five cards and activated one of my spells on the Gatekeeper's field, choosing Scapegoat and giving him four Tokens. I set two more cards to end my turn, discarding my excess cards until I was holding six.

He once again sent a Trap to the Graveyard to revive Uria, now with 12000 ATK. However, as he controlled monsters when using this effect, he couldn't attack. My plan had worked, so all he could do was end his turn!

Carnivore drew, and it looked like she got what she needed as well. She played Soul Release, allowing her to remove from play up to five cards in any player's Graveyard, choosing to remove 5 Traps and subsequently weaken Uria by 5000 points. With that finished, she used her Tyranno Infinity to destroy Uria and remove the Gatekeeper's 2000 Life Points.

"From what I heard, you never could resist gorging your monsters," Carnivore spoke. "Now, hand over the Key."

"Fine, fine, fine," the Gatekeeper sighed. "I hate it when my mealtime's cut off though."

We walked back into the corridor with our prize, the final Key, the red Key. Now at last, with all seven Keys, we could declare victory.


	19. Chapter 19: Victory?

Chapter 19: Victory?

Returning to the center of the corridor, I saw that the cross on the computer screen was now completely colored green. New text had appeared, this time saying "The final Lock awaits you, the Gate of Seven Keys. Only by inserting your acquired Keys can you declare Victory."

"Where is this 'final lock'?" I asked.

"Don't know," Carnivore responded. "None of the Gatekeeper Arenas had separate gates, so it must be around here somewhere."

"Wait, I think I see it." I had noticed, just behind the screen, an area that featured guardrails. There also seemed to be a panel extruding from the floor. Looking closer, I got the idea that the panel seemed to be the final lock mentioned in the screen. There were seven separate Key holes, four of them numbering one through four, the other three being color-coded to blue, yellow and red.

"An elevator, eh?" Carnivore seemed to notice my observation. "Let's go, Toby."

Once we were both on, Carnivore inserted the numbered Keys we had acquired, followed by the Gatekeepers' colored Keys. Once they were all in, the roof opened, and the area we were on started rising. We rose until we were through the new opening and into a white-colored area, similar to the first sections of the Void I saw. Waiting for us was the Warden and a few other personnel.

"So, someone finally won a War?" he started. "You're not as brainless as I thought, Carnivore."

"Keep talking, Warden. We still won," my friend sounded very angry, similar to the anger she displayed with the Yellow Gatekeeper.

"True, since you won a War, what right do I have to deny you the spoils? You are now free to choose two other people aside from yourself to be the new Gatekeepers."

"What the hell kind of bullshit is that?"

"You won single-handedly."

"What about my fr-partner here?"

"He is still too fresh to have participated in War, so he will remain in the Black Zone." I couldn't believe this. Why did this have to be brought up now?

"Bullshit! He was here for just over a year, excluding his Leniency Week, and the minimum time he needs to have spent here is a year."

"Have it your way, Carnivore. I'm sick of hearing your stale arguments anyway. Now that you have defeated the current Gatekeepers without a loss, you two have been chosen to be the new Gatekeepers. You now have to select one other person to be the third Gatekeeper, but it has to be from the foes you encountered during War."

Carnivore looked at me. I could tell what she was thinking, and I nodded my approval, after which she spoke again. "Bring the Succubus!"

A while later, Rebecca Scarlet was brought in, and as this happened, three doors opened. One opened from behind us, the other from the sides of the room, and in came the three Gatekeepers.

"Gatekeepers," the Warden began. "You were defeated in battle, and allowed the gates to be thrown open. As a token of your shame, you now have to give up your Gate Guardians, the Sacred Beasts, and allow your successors to wield them."

With that, their Sacred Beast cards were handed to us. I felt a special bond with Uria; it seemed like the only card that appealed to me. Carnivore, strangely, settled for Hamon, although Rebecca seemed quite infatuated with Raviel.

Once we had chosen our Sacred Beasts, the Gatekeepers removed their respective Keys from the elevator locks, and handed them to us. I got the red key, Carnivore got the yellow, and Rebecca got the blue. Quite sad, really, because blue was one of my favorite colors.

The three of us were taken back to security, and had to surrender our keycards. After a few minutes, we got them back, although we were told that now we had high-level access. We were also told that, now since we were the new Gatekeepers, we weren't required to take any more lessons. However, we fell under the Warden's direct authority, and that of his subordinates, and we were still based in our original Cells.

"Well, so much for that plan," I found myself saying in my Cell the next day, with the only two friends I had made keeping me company.

"Don't think of it like that, Toby," Carnivore told me. "Sure, we're not out of here yet, but consider that War as a stepping stone."

"You two…" Rebecca began, "…thanks for what you did."

"I remember you also wanting out of here, Succubus. It seemed only fair. You and Toby are the same in that respect."

"Still… thanks."

"Anyway, we need to get ourselves acquainted with high-level access now. We are new Gatekeepers, so I don't think anyone should raise an eyebrow at us taking a peek."

A couple minutes later, we left the Cell, and instead walked over to the pure white VIP lifts. After seeing that our keycards worked and getting in, we saw a whole range of areas to choose from. For one thing, they had a separate food court, and they also had their own break room and sleeping quarters. Other areas included the Hangar Bay, which is presumably where I was received, along with the Security Station. Then there was the Warden's Office, which confused me as it was on an entirely separate floor.

We explored one area at a time, although when we got to the Hangar Bays, I was quite shocked to say the least. We approached one of the hangars, and it had a glass area through which we could see the interior of the wide hangar itself.

"Depressurizing Hangar 9," a voice sounded over the intercom. Doors from the other side of the hangar started opening, and as they did, I swore I could see air leaving. The doors continued to open, revealing something I couldn't quite make out at the time. Once the doors had fully opened, however, I could see what shook me to my bones: I could see a large, grey object floating in the middle of nowhere. A plane came in to land, and just as it entered, the doors began closing. Just before reaching the other side of the hangar, the doors were shut, and there was an announcement mentioning pressurization of the area.

I had to see more. When we returned to the lifts, I inserted my own keycard and looked for a destination. Just about all of the high-level areas were above the low-level areas, except for one: an observatory. Why would an observatory be at the bottom? Still, that was the region I ordered the lift to go.

"Something wrong, Toby?" Rebecca asked me.

"There's something I need to find out. What the hell was that 'depressurization' thing?"

When the lift arrived, I was in a long corridor. I ran out into that corridor, towards the end, with Carnivore and Rebecca following me. When I reached my destination, I found a keycard slot. Inserting my keycard, an option came up, saying "LOWER OBSERVATION DECK – BULKHEADS 1-6. OPEN/CLOSE". I pressed the 'OPEN' option, and the metal along the wall in front of us began retracting, allowing light to pour in from the outside. I was completely stunned by what I saw; a large, blue planet-like… anyway, if what I saw was right, then I was looking down at the Earth itself! Which could only mean one thing… "This place… is… a space station?" I found myself saying, at a loss for words to express how trapped I was feeling.

"Those sons of bitches," Carnivore spat.

"So we were in space all along," Rebecca sighed. "Toby, Carnivore, I swear to both of you: I'm going to tear this whole place down!"

"That makes three of us from the looks of it, but let's not be too hasty. We first have got a lot of research to do. Mark my words, we will be free of this place!"

That was the point in my life that a light of hope and the chance to escape started flickering, yet it wasn't bright, just enough to turn the black to gray.

* * *

**End note:** It just seemed to make sense to me to make the Void a space station. In the English Dub of 5Ds, Sayer described the secret location as having the co-ordinates ever-changing, and a space station sounded almost ideal. How else would the base be continuously mobile, yet fail to draw attention from other cities or countries? Another reason I opted for 'space station' was the horror of the fact that there would be _no_ escape from the Void if inmates found out what it truly was, as well as the fact that it was quite fitting that the inmates be stranded in a literal void.


	20. Chapter 20: The start of rebellion

Chapter 20: The start of rebellion

Half a year has passed since we discovered that the Void was a space station. During that time, Carnivore, Rebecca and I were worked quite hard by the Warden, but in between all of that, we were doing as much research on the Void as we could. One thing that Carnivore noted, though, was that the Warden almost never communicated directly with us. All orders he gave us were relayed via three individuals.

One area we focused our research on was these individuals. We found them out to be the Warden's right hand, the Summon Overseers. These three Overseers were apparently the head overseers to which the other overseers, guards and even maintenance staff reported. We found out that the reason they were called the Summon Overseers was due to the fact that their Decks were based off a specific type of Summon. I managed to find out that the overseer that I, as a Gatekeeper, reported to was known as the Overseer of Rituals.

Otherwise, another area we researched was how to take control of the Void. The vow to destroy the station was still fresh in our hearts, but it was unwise to do that while the Void was still in orbit unless we either wanted to die from lack of oxygen or burn up while re-entering the atmosphere. To do that, however, we needed to find some way to take the space station itself out of orbit. The only thing we managed to find, however, pointed to the Warden. Somehow, he was the Key to our plans

The previous two factors led us to research a third factor; how hard it would be to challenge the Warden to a Duel. We learned that if someone somehow achieved access to a high-level area while only bearing a low-level access card and no high-level escort, any guards who found him would Duel him on the spot, not stopping until the troublemaker was defeated. Since we were Gatekeepers, however, we wouldn't have that problem. One problem we would have, though, is that if we approached the Warden without prior notice and approval, the Summon Overseers would bar our way.

Today, it looked like we were as prepared as we could be with regards to knowledge. However, we couldn't afford to get bogged down with Dueling the Overseers, as we needed to save our strength for the Warden.

"We could rally the other Cells to fight against the Overseers," Rebecca suggested, while we were in her Cell.

"Just who are we going to rally?" Carnivore asked. I could tell from her voice that she didn't believe Rebecca's plan was possible.

"Well, I'm still in touch with Sky Fairy. I can ask her to relay a message to the Beast."

"What use will the Beast be? He's just an animal."

"Many animals have been known to carry heavier loads than humans. In this case, an animal can mean all the difference between victory and defeat."

"Why Sky Fairy though?"

"You know the Beast only speaks to those who acknowledge him as superior. Sky Fairy is one of the only people I know outside Cellblock 8 who qualify as such. Of course you could try, but then he'd try to make you his girlfriend due to that little crush he has on you."

"Fine. We will need more than those two, though."

"Hopefully, Sky Fairy can persuade Dancer as well. We may also need Nightshade and Hunter-Killer's help. I saw in your match that you were on speaking terms with those two, so you can try and get their help. Seeing as though Toby seemed the submissive type to Queen and Bombardier, he is probably best suited to getting their help."

I couldn't believe this. I hated those two, yet I was being forced to deliver a message to them. "Relax, Toby," Rebecca spoke to me, probably noticing how I felt. "You aren't going to go there to serve their every whim, you are just trying to get them on our side for this battle. Trust me, I hate them just as much as you do, but we need their help."

I couldn't help but sigh as I made my way to Cellblock 3. Almost immediately, I ran into the Queen that used an Insect Deck, whom immediately began speaking "Well, if it isn't the new little Gatekeeper twerp!"

"I need to talk to you and the Bombardier!" I tried to speak.

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the lack of respect you showed!"

"I need to talk to you and the Bombardier, my Queen!"

"Now see, was that so hard? Just this once, I'll take you to see him, but then you'd better do your Queen a favor and explain yourself fully."

She led me to her Cell, and the Bombardier was also there. After the Cell was secured, I explained what I had planned, also giving them intelligence on what we were up against.

"Risky. Very risky. What makes you think this plan will even work?" the Bombardier asked me.

"I just have a feeling, Bombardier."

"Still, what makes you think you can just draft us in?"

"I'm asking for your help, Bombardier. I believe that your Dueling skills will surely result in victory. Besides, you and my Queen deserve respect from those you encounter. Not the guards, not the Summon Overseers, not even the Warden is giving you the same respect! In fact, I suspect that I'm the only one with high-level access who is addressing you the way you wish to be addressed."

"When you put it like that…" the Queen spoke again, "…you make a very good point. I never thought I'd say this, but you've got our support."

"Don't be so hasty, my Queen," Bombardier spoke again. "We will follow you to the Overseers, but unless we see at least one victory in this campaign of yours, we won't help you in an actual Duel against them!"

"Fair enough," I said. To be quite honest, I was hoping for an unconditional commitment to our fight for freedom, but then again, I was lucky enough that I even got them on my side. The next day, I met up at the VIP Lifts of Cellblock 16. Also there was Carnivore, Rebecca, Beast, Sky Fairy, Dancer, Queen and Bombardier.

Noticing something missing, I asked "What about those two?"

"They refused to get involved," Carnivore spat.

"We need to find other people then!"

"We can't. The guards most likely know about us now, so we have no time to waste. Everyone here will have to do.

With the access provided, the eight of us squeezed into the elevator and opted to go to the Warden's office. The next time those doors opened, it would be all out war.


	21. Chapter 21: Boisterous Murasaki

Chapter 21: Boisterous Murasaki

The lift opened, and we were greeted with a long, white corridor that featured a door at the end. We ran through to the door, and it opened to reveal another corridor looking exactly like it… with someone at the end. I couldn't make out exactly what he was

"One of the Overseers… so they were expecting an attack," Carnivore noted

"What a magnificent bunch of upstarts," the man began speaking, coming forward and throwing off his cloak to reveal a purple colored uniform, similar in style to the guards, and short, spiky purple hair. "Okay now, get back to your cages!"

"Forget it, Murasaki!" Rebecca shouted. "We're going through, whether you want us to, or not."

"That line there just needs one alteration, so change 'through' to 'back to our cells to wallow in our own weaknesses'. There is no way any of you can beat moi, Murasaki, the Overseer of Fusions."

"You fucking take that back!" the Beast shouted.

"Are you back in your smelly cages yet?"

"You got some nerve trying to cage the Beast in the first place. We are going through those doors, and we'll trample you if we have to!"

"Is that a challenge to a Duel? Sorry, I don't speak worthless prisoner."

"Dancer, Fairy, you two are joining me in taking this guy down! Carnivore, you take the rest of the pups and move forward."

"Hah! They will do no such thing!" Murasaki shouted, as the roof retracted and the walls to our sides withdrew. The one corridor expanded to the size of a white Duel Arena, with Murasaki at the other end. "The only way they get through is if I'm defeated!"

"Duel!" Beast, Sky Fairy, Dancer and Murasaki shouted. Beast went first, summoning Exarion Universe (1800/1900) and ending his turn. Dancer took over, playing Polymerization to fuse Etoile Cyber and Blade Skater from her Hand into Cyber Blader (2100/800). Sky Fairy's turn involved her summoning Victoria (1800/1500), playing Double Summon to summon another Victoria, placing a card face-down and ending her turn.

Murasaki drew, and activated the Field Spell Card Fusion Gate, allowing Fusion without Polymerization, but banishing the Fusion Material Monsters instead. From there, he Normal Summoned Z-Metal Tank (1500/1300) and removed Gaia the Fierce Knight and Curse of Dragon in his hand from play to Fusion Summon Gaia the Dragon Champion (2600/2100) due to Fusion Gate. He ended his turn with a Pot of Greed for two free cards, then three face-down cards.

Beast drew, and summoned Enraged Battle Ox (1700/1000), and then used Double Summon to summon Shiba-Warrior Taro (800/600). All three monsters were Tributed to Summon Beast King Barbaros (3000/1200). However, Limit Tribute revealed itself on Murasaki's field, limiting the amount of monsters that could be sacrificed to one per turn, foiling the summoning altogether and leaving the monsters on the field. As a replacement tactic, Beast attacked the Z-Metal Tank with his Exarion Universe, but that was when Mirror Force revealed itself, destroying all monsters on his, Sky Fairy and Dancer's fields. Beast ended his turn there.

Dancer's turn came, and she used Monster Reborn to revive her Cyber Blader, whose ATK doubled to 4200 due to Murasaki only controlling two monsters. She chose to attack, but that was when the Overseer revealed Draining Shield, negating the attack and gaining 4200 Life Points to come to 8200. Dancer's turn ended there.

Sky Fairy took over. From what I could tell, she seemed quite angry that her lock had been broken by just one card. She used Soul Charge to revive both Victorias, placed a card face-down and activated Emergency Provisions, destroying her Set Card to regain the Life Points she had lost. The card destroyed happened to be Apple of Enlightenment, allowing her to draw one card. She ended her turn there.

Murasaki's turn came, and he played Card of Sanctity, giving everyone a six-card hand, after which he summoned Y-Dragon Head (1500/1600) and played Double Summon to summon X-Head Cannon (1800/1500). That was when things got nasty, as he sacrificed the three monsters to summon XYZ Dragon Cannon (2800/2600). He didn't have much of a choice as to who to attack: Sky Fairy had an attack lock, and Dancer had a 4200 ATK monster, so Murasaki attacked the Beast's Shiba-Warrior Taro. Sky Fairy revealed her DNA Surgery Trap Card, choosing to treat all monsters as Fairy-types, and extending her attack lock to cover her allies. Murasaki merely discarded two cards in response to this to have the effect of XYZ-Dragon Cannon destroy both Victorias and continue his attack on the Beast, bringing him down to 2000 Life Points. After that, Murasaki played Card of Demise, giving him a five-card hand in exchange for discarding his hand in five turns. From there, came Soul Charge, reviving V-Tiger Jet (1600/1800) and W-Wing Catapult (1300/1500) and the subsequent combination into VW-Tiger Catapult (2000/2100). After that, however, VW-Tiger Catapult and XYZ-Dragon Cannon further combined into VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon (3000/2800). His last few moves, however, were the use of Fusion Gate to banish Red Eyes Black Dragon and Summoned Skull to Fusion Summon Black Skull Dragon (3200/2500), and a Graceful Charity to draw three cards and discard two.

"I'd like to see you pathetic animals get past this assault!" Murasaki shouted. "Unfortunately, I've already used my Battle Phase this turn, so I have to end there, but remember: I've got 7200 Life Points by myself, while you only have 10000 Life Points between the three of you!"

Beast drew, quite angry about his Life Point loss from what I could tell, and set a card face-down. After a nod from Sky Fairy, he used Emergency Provisions to destroy her DNA Surgery and his set card, bringing him back up to 4000 and allowing him to draw a card as an Apple of Enlightenment was removed. He seemed quite happy with the card he got, and I then found out why: it was Mystical Space Typhoon. Playing it, he destroyed the Limit Tribute that was blocking his Summoning attempts, and from there, it was Monster Reborn, reviving Shiba-Warrior Taro, which he Tributed along with his Exarion Universe and Enraged Battle Ox to Summon Beast King Barbaros (3000/1200). Since it was Tribute Summoned with three cards, all of Murasaki's cards were destroyed. His next move was to attack Murasaki directly, but was stopped by the Special Summoning of a Battle Fader (0/0) on his opponent's side of the field which ended the Battle Phase.

When Dancer took over, she also attacked, but her attack succeeded, albeit with the 2100 ATK point Cyber Blader, bringing Murasaki down to 5100 Life Points. She placed a card face-down and let Sky Fairy take over. Bountiful Artemis was summoned and sacrificed to bring out Tethys, Goddess of Light (2400/1800), and from there came a Pot of Greed, allowing for the drawing of two cards and the activation of Tethys' ability. Sky Fairy revealed her Gellenduo (1700/0) to draw one more card, drawing and Special Summoning Watapon (200/300). Another Double Summon brought out Gellenduo, and both monsters were sacrificed. Gellenduo, counting for two Tributes for Fairy-type monsters, was sacrificed to bring out Archlord Kristya (2800/2300), and Watapon was Tributed to bring out Airknight Parshath (1900/1400). I thought she was going to win now that she had those monsters out. When she attacked, however, Murasaki revealed Rescuer from the Grave from his Graveyard, removing five cards from play to negate the attack and end the Battle Phase.

Murasaki drew, and used Spell Reproduction, discarding two spells to get one back. He just happened to pick Card of Demise, playing it again to refill his hand to five cards.

"Hahaha, I drew it. Prepare to die!" Murasaki laughed. "I activate Cross Sacrifice, so I can Tribute your monsters to summon my own. I Tribute Airknight Parshath, Tethys, Goddess of Light and Archlord Kristya on the girl's side of the field to summon my ultimate monster: The Wicked Avatar!"

The black sphere appeared, and its ATK and DEF increased to 3001, 1 point higher than the strongest monster on the field. Murasaki also pointed out that The Wicked Avatar is unaffected by any Traps or Monster Effects, and that Spells targeting it only last for one turn. With that, he attacked the now defenseless Sky Fairy directly, damaging her and putting her on 999 Life Points. He ended his turn there.

Beast drew, and played the Continuous Spell Card Hidden Passage. Since his one monster's ATK was lower than the monster with the lowest ATK on Murasaki's side of the field, with The Wicked Avatar being at 3001 ATK and Beast King Barbaros at 3000, Beast could attack his opponent directly with one monster. From there, the attack brought Murasaki down to 2100 Life Points.

Dancer drew, and from what I could tell, she seemed quite happy with what she drew. She placed a card face-down to end her turn. Sky Fairy took over and did the same. I didn't see how they were going to destroy The Wicked Avatar; it was built to be the strongest monster on the field.

Murasaki drew, and used Monster Reborn to revive VWXYZ-Dragon Catapult Cannon (3000/2800), and used a second Card of Demise to refill his hand to five cards. From there came a second Monster Reborn, reviving Black Skull Dragon (3200/2500), and another Spell Reproduction to discard two spells and retrieve one. This in turn led one of the Monster Reborn cards to be used a second time, three times in total, to revive Gaia the Dragon Champion (2600/2100).

"You should never have left your stinking cages in the first place!" Murasaki shouted, after which he attacked Sky Fairy with Gaia. That was, however, when she revealed Rainbow Life, discarding a card to turn the damage taken into Life Points, coming up to 3599.

"We will blast through you!" Dancer shouted back once Sky Fairy saved herself. "Trap activate: Ring of Destruction. This destroys a monster and damages everyone by its ATK value, and I choose my Cyber Blader!"

Her monster was destroyed, and it brought her and Beast down to 1900 Life Points, Sky Fairy to 1499, and Murasaki to 0.

I felt relieved, and as the walls and ceiling returned to their original position, Beast, Sky Fairy and Dancer forced Murasaki to open the door and told me, Carnivore, Rebecca, Bombardier and Queen to go on ahead.


	22. Chapter 22: Beautiful Aoi

**Author's note:** Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards.

* * *

Chapter 22: Beautiful Aoi

The five of us ran through the door, only to be met with a second corridor, and the Overseer I reported directly to: the Overseer of Rituals, a woman by the name of Aoi. If not for her official status as one of the Summon Overseers, I could easily have mistaken her for a princess. She featured waist-length, wavy blue hair, and was in the same style of uniform as the guards, only with it being a blue color instead of Murasaki's purple and suitably adjusted to fit on women.

"Aw, isn't this cute?" she taunted. "The tiny little runt thinks he can reach the Warden."

"I don't think I can reach the Warden, Aoi…" I began

"There we go, that's a bit better isn't it, little bishonen,"

"…I _know_ I can reach the Warden!"

"Look here, little boy-chan. You need to learn to recognize a lost cause when you see one. There is no possible way your little rebellion is going to succeed."

"And what makes you so sure of that?" Bombardier began speaking, with him and Queen stepping forward.

"Because I will not let you reach the Warden. Now, just go back to your cells and accept that you will never accomplish your objectives."

At that point, just like before, the walls and ceiling retracted until the corridor was the size of a Duel Arena.

"You have shown us the one victory that we wanted to see," Bombardier continued, "…and for that you will have our support. My Queen, we are next to Duel!"

"Duel!" Queen, Aoi and Bombardier shouted. Queen went first, summoning Pheromone Wasp (800/800) and placing two cards face-down. Bombardier drew, summoned KC-1 Crayton (1500/1200), and placed a card face-down to end his turn. Aoi drew, and activated Ritual Sanctuary. This Field Spell Card allowed her to discard one Spell Card to add one Ritual Spell Card from her Deck to her Hand. From there, came Black Luster Ritual, with her tributing the Level 8 Archfiend Empress in her hand to Ritual Summon Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500), ending with a face-down card.

The turn came back to Queen, who summoned Leghul (300/350), and played Hidden Passage. Since her monsters ATK were all lower than the monster Aoi had with the lowest ATK, one monster she controlled could attack her opponent directly. She chose to use this effect with her Pheromone Wasp, dealing Aoi 800 damage and activating its ability to Special Summon a Level 4 or lower insect from her Deck, choosing Parasite Caterpillar (800/800). Leghul then attacked directly with its own ability, dealing 300 damage to put Aoi on 2900 Life Points. Another card was placed face-down, after which her turn ended.

When Bombardier drew, he immediately attacked Black Luster Soldier with his KC-1 Crayton. I thought it was suicide, since the target was twice as strong, but he revealed his face-down Tank Corp, Special Summoning 3 Defense position Tank Tokens and increasing his monster's strength by 500 points for each one. That in turn, brought the main tank up to 3000, ending the battle in a draw which destroyed both monsters. From there, he played Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two. After that came Sky Union, destroying the three Tank Tokens to summon Air Fortress Ziggurat (2500/2000), and to end his turn, he played a Trap Reactor* Y FI (800/1800) and used Monster Reborn to revive his Summon Reactor* SK (2000/1400), after which he received a Robot Token from Air Fortress Ziggurat.

Aoi drew, and activated Machine Angel Ritual. This card allowed her to Ritual Summon any Cyber Angel monster. She sent her Djinn Cursenchanter of Rituals and her Draw Slime to the Graveyard to Ritual Summon Cyber Angel Idaten (1600/1200). Since her Draw Slime was sent to the Graveyard, she could draw one card. The ability of Summon Reactor* SK activated: the first time Aoi summoned a monster, she took 800 damage, coming to 2100 Life Points. From there, she activated the card she drew, Card of Sanctity, allowing everyone to draw until holding six cards. The Trap Card Altar for Tribute revealed itself, destroying Idaten and increasing Aoi's Life Points by 1600 to come to 3700. Monster Reborn came in then, reviving Idaten and allowing the return of a Spell Card from the Graveyard to the hand. It looked like the card retrieved was Machine Angel Ritual, because that activated again, this time with her sending her Level 1 Djinn Disserere of Rituals, Level 4 Djinn Presider of Rituals and Level 3 Djinn Prognosticator of Rituals to the Graveyard to Special Summon the Level 8 Cyber Angel Dakini (2700/2400). Pot of Greed came afterwards, for two free cards, followed by Spell Reproduction, discarding two spells to get one back, ending up with one card in her hand again.

Card of Sanctity came into play again, refilling her hand with six cards. The effect of her Field Spell allowed her to discard one Spell Card and draw one Ritual Spell Card from her Deck. A second Machine Angel Ritual activated, with her sending from her hand a second Djinn Presider of Rituals and a second Draw Slime to the Graveyard to Ritual Summon Cyber Angel Benten (1800/1500). The first to attack was Cyber Angel Idaten, attacking Trap Reactor* Y FI, but Bombardier used Summon Reactor* SK's secondary ability to negate the attack. Aoi, apparently, set her sights on the Queen after that, attacking the Leghul with her Dakini, destroying the target and dealing 2400 damage to Queen, leaving her with 1600. This also activated the effect of Djinn Presider of Rituals; allowing Aoi to draw a card since the monster Ritual Summoned using this monster destroyed a monster by battle. The effect of Djinn Prognosticator of Rituals also activated, forcing Queen to select and discard a card since she took Battle Damage from the monster Ritual Summoned using this effect. Queen also couldn't do anything as Dakini was also Ritual summoned using Djinn Disserere of Rituals, preventing it from being affected by Traps. Finally, Aoi attacked with Cyber Angel Benten, aiming for Queen's Pheromone Wasp, and if the attack went through, she was a goner, as I had faced Benten sometime in the past. That card had an ability that inflicted damage equal to the destroyed monster's DEF, and the total damage of this would come to 1800 and knock Queen out of the game.

Queen, however, had other plans, activating Draining Shield, negating the attack and instead gaining 1800 Life Points to come to 3400 and essentially forcing Aoi to end her turn, although not before placing three cards face-down. When Queen took her turn, she summoned Pinch Hopper (1000/1200) and Tributed it and Pheromone Wasp to summon Insect Queen (2200/2400), also choosing to Special Summon Brain Crusher (2400/1500) from her hand using Pinch Hopper's effect. Her third move was to remove Pheromone Wasp and Leghul from her Graveyard to Special Summon Doom Dozer (2800/2600). I could somehow tell that she was glad she set one card when she did, as now she could maybe use it. She played Insect Barrier, and then attacked Cyber Angel Dakini with Doom Dozer, but Negate Attack revealed itself, stopping the attack and ending the Battle Phase.

Bombardier drew, and summoned Spell Reactor* RE (1200/900) and activated a third ability of Summon Reactor* SK, sending it, Trap Reactor* Y FI and Spell Reactor *RE to the Graveyard to Special Summon Flying Fortress SKY FIRE (3000/2500) from his Deck. From there, an ability of this new monster activated; by discarding a card, Bombardier could destroy a card Aoi controlled, choosing one of her face-downs and shouting 'Sharp Shooting'. The face-down turned out, unfortunately, to be Apple of Enlightenment, allowing the Overseer to draw one card. Bombardier still pressed on, using Flying Fortress SKY FIRE to destroy Cyber Angel Dakini with 'Death Air Raid' and bring Aoi down to 3400. After that came Air Fortress Ziggurat, destroying Cyber Angel Benten with 'Sky Cannon Blast' and reducing Aoi's Life Points to 2700. He ended with a Pot of Greed for two cards, two face-down cards and a second Robot Token from Air Fortress Ziggurat.

Aoi drew, and placed a card face-down. The 'Death Drop' effect of Flying Fortress SKY FIRE activated, once per turn destroying a newly set card or summoned monster. However, the card destroyed was another Apple of Enlightenment, allowing Aoi to draw another card even though she lost 800 Life Points to come to 1900.

"I drew it," she stated, after which she activated Card of Demise, drawing until holding five cards in her hand in exchange for discarding her hand in five turns, placed two cards face-down and activated Emergency Provisions, destroying all three of her Set cards, one of which was a third Apple of Enlightenment, allowing her to draw one card in addition to her Life Points becoming 4900. Soul Charge activated, allowing her to lose 500 points per monster to revive any number of monsters, choosing Cyber Angel Dakini and Cyber Angel Benten, leaving her with 3900 Life Points. Those two Cyber Angels, along with Cyver Angel Idaten, were Tributed to Summon The Wicked Eraser (?/?), which gained 1000 ATK and DEF for each card Aoi's opponents controlled. Queen had a Parasite Caterpillar, an Insect Queen, a Doom Dozer, a Brain Crusher, an Insect Barrier, a Hidden Passage and a face-down card, while Bombardier had a Flying Fortress SKY FIRE, an Air Fortress Ziggurat, two Robot Tokens and two face-down cards. This meant that the attack and defense of The Wicked Eraser was 13000 points.

A second Card of Demise activated, allowing Aoi to refresh her hand with five new cards. She then used the Ritual Spell Card End of the World, this time banishing Djinn Presider of Rituals, and Djinn Prognosticator of Rituals and Djinn Disserere of Rituals from her Graveyard to summon Ruin, Queen of Oblivion (2300/2000). The effect of Ritual Sanctuary activated, letting her exchange a Spell Card for a Ritual Spell Card. Another End of the World was played, with the second Djinn Presider of Rituals and the Djinn Cursenchanter of Rituals from her Graveyard being banished, this time to summon Demise, King of Armageddon (2400/2000).

Aoi's Battle Phase began. She attacked Queen's now 3000 point Insect Queen with The Wicked Eraser, but DNA Surgery revealed itself, with Queen choosing to treat all monsters as Insect types, and subsequently stop them with Insect Barrier. This, however, didn't stop The Wicked Eraser, as it was unaffected by Trap Cards, but that was when Bombardier revealed his Scrubbed Raid, sending any one card on the field to end the Battle Phase, ultimately sending the other face-down card for the effect. She had to end her turn there, although she placed a card face-down. Due to the Trap, the Insect Queen's ATK had increased to 4400, and since a card was removed from Bombardier's field, The Wicked Eraser was now on 12000 ATK..

Queen drew, but couldn't activate the Hidden Passage on her field. The lowest ATK on Aoi's field was 2300, lower than the highest ATK monster she or Bombardier had. Her first move was to attack Demise, King of Armageddon, with her Doom Dozer, destroying it, dealing 400 damage to Aoi and forcing her to send the top card of her Deck to her Graveyard. Next to attack was the Brain Crusher, destroying Ruin, Queen of Oblivion and dealing 100 damage to Aoi, leaving her on 3400 Life Points. Now that the lowest ATK the Overseer had was 12000, Hidden Passage could now be used to attack her directly. Queen then sacrificed one of Bombardier's two Robot Tokens to allow her now 3800 ATK Insect Queen to attack directly, but this time Rainbow Life revealed itself, instead gaining all of that damage as Life Points at the cost of discarding a card. Now, Aoi was on 7200, with the previous 500 damage taken taking her to 7700 Life Points.

Bombardier drew, and it sounded like he got a card he was looking for. I saw him play Polymerization, fusing his Air Fortress Ziggurat and Flying Fortress SKY FIRE to Fusion Summon **Thousand-Weapons Battlecruiser** (4000/4000). This card, during each of his Standby Phases, Special Summoned a **Kamikaze Token** (800/800). These Tokens had the uncanny ability of destroying anything they attacked along with themselves, without applying Damage Calculation.

From there, three Spell Cards were activated. The first was Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two. The second was Soul Charge, Special Summoning Science Soldier and Kinetic Soldier from the Graveyard, after which a Cyber Soldier of Darkworld was summoned. The third and final one was **Suicide Transformation**, requiring his Fusion Monster to be out and turning all allied monsters aside from **Thousand-Weapons Battlecruiser** into Kamikaze Tokens (800/800). In total, on Bombardier's and Queen's side of the field, eight Kamikaze tokens were summoned, with his monster gaining 800 ATK for each Token on the field. This in turn boosted the ATK of **Thousand-Weapons Battlecruiser** by 6400 to come to 10400. He activated his own Hidden Passage at that point, and since the ATK of his monster was still lower than the lowest ATK on Aoi's field, at 10400 to now 15000 ATK of The Wicked Eraser, he could attack Aoi directly.

"Now we break through this rubbish you call a barricade!" he shouted. "**Thousand-Weapons Battlecruiser** attacks Aoi directly; Endless Bombardment!"

Every single one of the weapons took aim at Aoi, and once all of them were pointed at her, it was a merciless beatdown. Cannon after cannon fired, with machine gun turrets rapidly shooting and innumerable amounts of missiles launching straight towards her. As they made contact, I was grateful that Bombardier wasn't using much Psychic Power, or else the entire room would have been destroyed in a matter of seconds with such firepower. With that duel won, the door opened, but Aoi didn't look like she was going to let us through. Bombardier and Queen moved her out of the way and told Carnivore, Rebecca and me to continue without them.


	23. Chapter 23: Brutal Shiro

Chapter 23: Brutal Shiro

After bidding the Bombardier and Queen farewell, we continued into a third corridor. This time, the person waiting for us was someone with shoulder-length untidy white hair, in a white version of what Murasaki was wearing. "Ah, Shiro, the Overseer of Synchros," Carnivore spoke.

"Carnivore. I don't know how you bested my compatriots, but you won't pass here," this Shiro guy calmly stated.

"Well, Toby, it looks like the three of us are going to be in the front lines."

"Wait!" a shout came down from the hall. Turning around, I could see two figures running towards us. As they got closer, I could finally identify them as Nightshade and Hunter-Killer.

"I thought you said you weren't getting involved. What made you change your mind?"

"Your victories over the other Overseers," Nightshade began. "We couldn't believe it. We tailed you out of curiosity expecting the worst, and when the first two Overseers fell, we started to realize that maybe we can bring them down too. So we will be Shiro's opponent!"

The corridor walls and roof retracted to form a Duel Arena, after which Nightshade and Hunter-Killer took their positions and began the Duel. Nightshade went first, placing a card face-down and ending his turn. Hunter-Killer drew, Summoned Meklord Army of Wisel (1800/0), placed a card face-down and ended his turn. Shiro drew and played Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two. Next, he activated Synchro Monument, forbidding activation of cards when a Tuner or Synchro Monster was Summoned. Thirdly, he summoned a Level 3 Junk Synchron (1300/500) and used its ability to bring back a Level 2 Draw Slime (300/400). That was when Shiro began speaking, shouting: "Now I'm tuning my Level 2 Draw Slime and my Level 3 Junk Synchron. Flimsy hopes constructed by prisoners with wishful pipe dreams, come to me and serve as a weapon for your true master! Synchro Summon! The efforts of trash, Junk Warrior!" as the monster appeared with stats of (2300/1300). Due to Draw Slime being sent to the Graveyard, he also drew a card. Thankfully, all that could be done was to end the turn, albeit with two face-down cards.

Nightshade drew, and summoned his own Draw Slime (300/400). After this, he attacked Shiro's Junk Warrior, and although it seemed like Suicide, I knew from our Duel that Nightshade wasn't one to do something without a plan. Sure enough, the Slime was destroyed, allowing him to draw one card, and he was due to take 2000 points of damage. That was when he revealed his Sinister Seeds, negating damage in intervals of 1000 and Special Summoning one Sinister Seed token (100/100) for each multiple of damage negated this way. He got two Sinister Seed Tokens in Defense Mode as a result, and then activated Closed Plant Gate. Since he controlled two Plant-type monsters of the same name, in this case Sinister Seed Token, Shiro couldn't declare an attack during his next turn.

Hunter-Killer took over, and once he saw the strategy of Shiro, he thought that he had an answer. He summoned Meklord Army of Skiel (1200/1000), followed by a Double Summon and summoning of Meklord Army of Granel (1600/1200), which in turn was followed by the Special Summoning of Meklord Astro Dragon Asterisk (?/0) since he controlled three Machine-type monsters. His fifth move was the card Boon of the Meklord Emperor, allowing him to draw one card for each Meklord monster he controlled, resulting in four new cards. Asterisk's attack was now equal to the total ATK of each Machine-type monster Hunter-Killer controlled, resulting in 4600 ATK. The effect of Granel activated, halving the ATK and DEF of Junk Warrior to 1150/650, and then I saw him attack with Skiel. Staunch Defender activated on Shiro's side of the field, however, forcing all of Hunter-Killer's monsters to attack the one. In total, he took 50 damage from Skiel, 450 damage from Granel, 650 damage from Wisel and 3550 from Asterisk. Rainbow Life activated then as well, instead adding the total damage of 4700 to his current Life Points at the cost of discarding a card. Now, although he was without a monster, his Life Points were at 8700 now. Hunter-Killer placed a card face-down to end his turn.

Shiro drew, and used Soul Charge to revive Junk Synchron and Draw Slime at the cost of reducing his Life Points to 7700. Then, he summoned a Level 1 Buster Blaster (0/0), and used the ability of Junk Synchron to bring back a second Draw Slime. Shiro began speaking again, shouting "Now I'm tuning my two Level 2 Draw Slimes, Level 1 Buster Blaster and my Level 3 Junk Synchron. When the mules tire of toiling away, raise your swords and with burning fury slice to shreds any hope they attempt to call forth. Synchro Summon! Quell the uprising, Crimson Blader!" as the monster appeared with stats of (2800/2600). Since two Draw Slimes were sent to the Graveyard, Shiro drew two cards. Also due to activate was the ability of Asterisk, but it was shut down by Synchro Monument. Two cards were placed face-down to end Shiro's turn

Nightshade drew, and Closed Plant Gate wore off. He immediately Tributed his two Sinister Seed Tokens to summon Yubel (0/0) and attacked Crimson Blader. I knew what Nightshade was trying to do: instead of Yubel being destroyed, it survived and dealt Shiro the total battle damage of 2800, bringing him down to 4900. Finally, Mystical Space Typhoon was used to destroy Synchro Monument, Samsara Lotus (0/0) was Summoned, and Tributed to keep Yubel on the field, and he finished with two face-down cards.

Hunter-Killer drew, and activated the Continuous Spell Card Lock-On Laser, which would deal 200 damage to his opponent every time he Set a card. A second attack was launched, but Negate Attack triggered to stop it and end the Battle Phase, forcing Hunter-Killer to end his turn, albeit with a Set card.

Shiro drew, and Summoned Copy Plant (0/0), after which he used Soul Charge to revive his two Draw Slimes, coming down to 3900, then using Card of Sanctity to get a six-card hand for everyone. Copy Plant copied the Level of the Draw Slimes, after which Shiro began speaking again: "I'm tuning my two Level 2 Draw Slimes and my now Level 2 Copy Plant. When the failures break their shackles for the fragrance of the outside world, incarcerate them anew! Synchro Summon. The organic shackles, Splendid Rose!" as the Level 6 monster was Summoned with its stats of 2200/2000. This in turn finally activated Hunter-Killer's set Level Cannon, dealing 1000 damage for the cards summoned prior to Synchro Summoning and dealing a further 1200 damage for the Synchro Summon itself. Asterisk also activated an ability which Hunter-Killer called 'Nemesis Tornado', dealing an extra 1000 damage. All in all, it came to 3200 damage, leaving Shiro on 700 Life Points. Although, now, he had two extra cards due to the Draw Slimes, which equaled eight cards total. He set three, taking 600 damage from Lock-On Laser to come to 100, then activated a second face-down Rainbow Life, negating all of that damage and gaining 3600 Life Points to come to 7500 Life Points. From there, he activated Emergency Provisions, destroying all three Set cards, which were (I couldn't believe what I saw) Apples of Enlightenment, allowing the drawing of three cards since they were removed from the field in addition to Shiro coming to 10500 Life Points.

"Now you all die," Shiro stated. I could only assume that this meant that he drew a 'Wicked' monster. Sure enough, he played two copies of 'Premature Burial' to return his Draw Slimes to the Field at a combined cost of 1000 Life Points, used Double Summon to summon another Draw Slime, and sacrificed all three to Tribute Summon The Wicked Dreadroot (4000/4000), announcing that it couldn't be affected by any Traps or Monster Effects, and Spells only last for one turn. From this, he took 1200 points of damage from Level Cannon for the Draw Slimes, followed by 2000 points of damage due to the Level 10 Monster to come to 7300 Life Points. Three cards were also drawn due to the Draw Slimes' effects, and he played a Pot of Greed to draw two cards.

The Overseer then played Trap Pause, freezing all face-up Continuous Trap Cards and allowing him to draw more cards for each Trap frozen. There was Level Cannon, allowing him to draw one more card. A Mystical Space Typhoon destroyed Lock-On Laser, after which a card was placed face-down and another Emergency Provisions destroyed it. Monster Reborn was then used to re-summon Junk Warrior from the Graveyard, but since Level Cannon was frozen by Trap Pause, no damage was dealt there, and the life-gain from Emergency Provisions cancelled out the effect of Asterisk. The effect of The Wicked Dreadroot had activated, halving the ATK and DEF of all other monsters on the field. This effect didn't really hinder Nightshade, but Hunter-Killer's monsters were all affected, as the Meklords had all reduced their ATK, now only netting Asterisk 2300 ATK points.

Shiro removed Copy Plant in the Graveyard from the game to halve Asterisk's ATK to 1150 with Splendid Rose and attacked Asterisk with The Wicked Dreadroot. Although the attack went through and damaged him by 2850 to come to 1150, Asterisk survived by Tributing a Meklord, in this case Wisel, and losing 900 ATK to come to 1400 originally, but now coming to 700 due to Splendid Rose. From there, Junk Warrior attacked, but Nightshade revealed Staunch Defender, causing all monsters not unaffected by Trap Cards to attack a monster of his choice, namely Yubel. The damage from Junk Warrior totaled 1150, from Crimson Blader was 1400 and Splendid Rose was 1100, causing a total of 3650 Battle Damage… all dealt to Shiro through Yubel's ability, bringing him down to 3650 Life Points. He placed a card face-down and ended his turn.

Nightshade drew, and used Giant Trunade to return all Spell and Trap Cards to their owner's hands. From there, he attacked The Wicked Dreadroot with Yubel, using its ability to deal a fatal 4000 damage to Shiro.

The walls and ceiling returned to their original position afterwards, with Nightshade and Hunter-Killer forcing Shiro to open the way forward. Finally, the last of the Summon Overseers was defeated, leaving the way clear to the Warden. Carnivore, Rebecca and I walked into the now revealed office to confront the main attraction himself: Brutus Angustia.


	24. Chapter 24: The Warden

**Author's note:** Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards.

* * *

Chapter 24: The Warden

When we entered the Warden's office, he looked like he was already expecting a Duel. At present, for some reason, I can't remember what he looks like exactly, just that he looked somewhat like a giant of a man, nearly double the size of Carnivore. "So, you got past my Overseers, eh?" he taunted.

"Indeed we have, Warden," Carnivore spoke. I have to say, I was put in awe by her bravery. To stand before someone who is twice your size (by which I mean my size) and talk down to them was something I found impressive, considering the fact that I somehow couldn't find words to say. "Now hand over the Guidance Key to the Satellite."

"How the hell did you… anyway, just because you beat my Overseers, what makes you think you can lay a finger on me?!"

"It's three against one, and our loss records are miniscule to boot."

"So what. I liked the way you crushed those who stood before you, Carnivore, and I was hoping you'd do the same to that whiny little brat! But instead, you have the gall to challenge **ME**?!" he shouted, activating his Duel Disk. In response, we all activated ours.

I went first, placing a card face-down. Carnivore was next, summoning a Miracle Jurassic Egg (0/2000) and placing two cards face-down. Rebecca followed with Polymerization, fusing the Maiden in Love and Succubus Knight in her hand to create **Succubus Temptress** (2000/1500), after which she placed a card face-down to end her turn.

The Warden drew, and played the Field Spell Temple of the Kings, allowing activation of his Traps the turn they were Set. His second card was the Special Summon of Vice Dragon (2000/2400), normally a Level 5, due to the fact that his opponents were the only ones who controlled monsters, in exchange for halving the cards ATK and DEF. The Level 2 Tuner Monster Magna Drago (1400/600) was summoned, and then the Trap Card Class Change, due to the Field Spell, was placed face-down and activated, increasing the Level of the Tuner to 3.

"I'm tuning my Level 5 Vice Dragon and my now Level 3 Magna Drago!" the Warden shouted as the monsters lit up to be replaced by one with the stats (2000/2000). "The True Dragon's hollow body will now arise. Experience the glory now of true emptiness! Synchro Summon! Rise, **Flesh of the Overseer Dragon**!" After the stars and circles erupted into the beam of light, a large white dragon-like form had appeared, with white scales, but strangely, it was completely hollow: no bones, and the skin looked like a deflated balloon of sorts

His new Dragon had apparently allowed him to draw one card, and upon seeing it, he grinned. His second move was to activate the Ritual Spell Card **Dragon Blood Ritual**, sacrificing a Level 8 Blue Eyes White Dragon in his hand and chanting "As the blood of a lesser Dragon is spilled, it boils with the fury of the True Dragon. I now Ritual Summon **Blood of the Overseer Dragon**!" as the monster appeared, a large mass of red blood in the same shape as the first dragon, with the stats (2000/2000). His last card was Card of Demise, giving him a five card hand in exchange for discarding his hand in five turns. From there, he activated Painful Choice, revealing five cards in his Deck to us and allowing us to choose one to add to his Hand. We saw the five pieces of Exodia, and we all settled on Exodia the Forbidden One (1000/1000), sending the rest to the Graveyard. One Double Summon later, and the card was on the field, before Altar for Tribute was played, destroying it and increasing the Warden's Life Points to 5000. Pot of Greed came in for two free cards. Contract with Exodia was then played, with him paying 2000 Life Points to Special Summon Exodia Necross (1800/0), setting one card face-down. With no cards in his Hand, the Warden had to end his turn there.

One thing about my past that I _did_ remember, however, was the fact that, at one time, the Exodia cards intrigued me. So, after a bit of research, I happened upon Exodia Necross, and being young at the time, composed a few rhymes to remember its effects. What exactly they said isn't important, but I knew that Exodia's left leg stopped this monster from being destroyed by Spell cards, the right leg stopped destruction by Trap Cards, the left arm stopped destruction by Monster effects, the right arm increased the strength of Exodia Necross by 1000 after each battle, and the main Exodia card stopped destruction by battle.

When I drew, I placed two more cards face-down and ended my turn. The card I was looking for hadn't arrived yet, and until it came, I had to stall for time.

Carnivore drew, yet was also forced to end her turn as all she did was switch her Egg to defense mode. When Rebecca drew, however, she looked like she got something she could work with. She Special Summoned Grinder Golem (3000/300) to the Warden's side of the field, also Special Summoning two Grinder Tokens (0/0) to her own. From there, she activated Change of Heart, taking control of the Grinder Golem on the Warden's field. The Golem, along with the two Tokens, was sacrificed to bring out her new ultimate beast; Raviel, Lord of Phantasms (4000/4000). She chose to attack Exodia Necross, but was stopped by a set Negate Attack, forcing her to end her turn.

The Warden drew, and activated a second Pot of Greed, drawing two cards. I could see a slight smile on his face, as if he almost had something he wanted. The effect of 'Blood of the Overseer Dragon, allowed him to add a Level 4 or lower Dragon-type monster from his Deck to his Hand, but from there, all that happened was that a card was placed face-down and Exodia Necross attacked the Defense Position Miracle Jurassic Egg, dealing him 200 damage but increasing the monster's ATK to 2800. Martyr Curse then activated due to the Field Magic, forcing Rebecca's **Succubus Temptress** and Exodia Necross to battle with the former's abilities negated. The Succubus was destroyed, dealing Rebecca 800 damage to come to 3200, and the ATK of Exodia Necross increased again to 3800.

I drew, but could only end my turn again. When Carnivore drew, however, she placed three cards face-down and sacrificed those three Spell Cards to summon Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/4000). She attacked Exodia Necross with it, though I tried to stop her. Instead, she dealt the Warden 200 points of damage to come to 2600 and increased the ATK of Exodia Necross to 4800. Her turn ended there.

Rebecca's turn saw her use Pot of Greed for two cards, followed by her use of Monster Reborn to revive her **Succubus Temptress** (2000/1500) and use its other ability to return a Change of Heart from her Graveyard to her hand. She then used that card to take control of **Blood of the Overseer Dragon** and then use Raviel's ability, Tributing the monster to give it 2000 extra ATK. She chose to attack with Raviel, targeting Exodia Necross and shouting "Shimmering Slash!", and although not destroying it, the Warden was now down to a mere 400 points. This in turn made Exodia Necross stronger at 5800 points. She set the last card she had face-down and ended her turn.

The Warden drew, and activated Card of Sanctity, giving everyone a six-card hand. The ability of **Flesh of the Overseer Dragon** activated: since a Dragon was added to his hand by a card effect other than its own, he could Special Summoning it, bringing out Red Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000). He then proceeded to use Polymerization to fuse the Red-Eyes on the field with a Mammoth Graveyard in his Hand, chanting "The essence of the True Dragon is fused in the bones of all Dragons. Let the surrender of the flesh and blood bring forth this essence! I Fusion Summon the **Bones of the Overseer Dragon**!" as the monster, a large... bone dragon... appeared with the stats (2000/2000) and being a Level 8. The ability of this card soon activated, returning a Dragon-type monster from the Graveyard to the field in Defense mode, choosing **Blood of the Overseer Dragon**.

All three Overseer Dragon monsters were then removed from play via the effect of the Bones, and the Warden started chanting again, saying "The True Dragon's soul lies waiting to inhabit a worthy vessel. Now the flesh, blood and bones shall join as one to create the husk that shall contain glory. Rise, **White Overseer Dragon of the Void**!" as the monster appeared, this time a Level 12 monster with 5000 ATK and DEF, and looking much larger and more like a dragon with its white skin, sharp teeth and more pronounced features. The ATK and DEF, however, increased, as the card had an ability that gives it 1000 ATK and DEF for each Dragon in the Graveyard. So far, there was Vice Dragon, Magna Drago, Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Red-Eyes Black Dragon, bringing it up to 9000.

The Warden proceeded to use his Field Spell to activate another Altar for Tribute from his hand, targeting his Exodia Necross and regaining 5800 Life Points to come to 6400, although due to that one effect, the card remained on the field. The summoning of the Dragons, however, caused Rebecca to gain three Phantasm Tokens from Raviel's effect (1000/1000) as each time a monster was Summoned while Raviel was out, the controller gained a Phantasm Token. The Warden attacked Rebecca's Raviel with his new Dragon's 'Overseer Dragon Fire' attack, but I revealed my Nightmare Mirror, discarding one card to negate the attack and deal 1000 damage to him. That was when he turned Exodia Necross on me, but that was also when I revealed Back-Attack Ambush, ending the battle phase, Special Summoning as many Ambush Tokens on my field as he had monsters (in this case 2) and giving me the option to immediately Tribute them to inflict 500 damage per token. Doing so, I got him down to 4400 Life Points, after which he placed a card face-down and ended his turn.

My turn came, and I finally drew what I needed. I placed two more cards face-down and sacrificed three Trap Cards to summon Uria, Lord of Searing Flames (?/0), which gained 1000 ATK for each Trap Card in my Graveyard. So far, I had six Trap Cards there, which made my monster's ATK 6000. I next used Uria's Trap Destruction ability to destroy the set card he had, and attacked Exodia Necross with its Hyper Blaze despite my initial concerns about doing so. I guess I just wanted to feel like part of the team, and me not trying to help bring it down made me feel like I wasn't. His Life Points were reduced by a mere 200 to 4200, after which his monster powered up to 6800 points.

Rebecca must have realized something, because after Carnivore drew, she activated Soul Demolition. Now Carnivore realized what had to be done. She paid 2500 Life Points in intervals of 500 to remove the Exodia pieces in the Warden's Graveyard from play, turning the black monster back to its original dull gold color and returning its ATK to 1800. From there, she used Card Destruction to discard her hand of six cards and draw an equal amount, adding twelve counters to her Egg. This also, however, increased the power boost on the Warden's Dragon to 13000. She Tributed her Egg to summon Super Conductor Tyranno (3300/1400), Normal Summoned Babycerasaurus (500/500) and activated the ability of her Tyranno. The Babycerasaurus was Tributed to inflict 1000 damage to the Warden to put him on 3200, and in turn, _that_ monster effect activated, allowing Carnivore to Special Summon a Tyranno Infinity (?/0) from her Deck. Her own Soul Release activated, removing five Dinosaurs in her own Graveyard from play, and increasing the ATK of her new monster to 5000. She attacked the now powerless Exodia Necross with Hamon, destroying it and dealing 2200 points of Battle Damage with the Lost Thunder attack, followed by 1000 points of Effect Damage from the Hell's Punishment effect, downing him for good. Personally, I wanted his ace monster destroyed, but then I guess you can't have everything. I was really glad that we had won the Duel though.

* * *

**End note:** Really enjoyed creating the Warden's Deck. I sort of wanted to convey a feeling that he had a power sort of like the three Summon Overseers rolled into one, hence his Overseer Dragon ace monster. The other monster, Exodia Necross, really seemed to fit as well considering the earlier days in the Void where the Warden, the tortures and general life in the Void were compounding, unstoppable forces that threatened to crush Toby.


	25. Chapter 25: The Plunge

Chapter 25: The Plunge

The Duel was won, but the Warden refused to give us his Key. Another surprise was in store: from behind us, the former Gatekeepers ran towards the Warden. In the blink of an eye, two had restrained his arms, while the third, the Blue Gatekeeper, threw us the Warden's Master Keycard. From there, the Yellow released her hold on the Warden's arm, placed some liquid on a rag, and then held the rag to the Warden's mouth, with him collapsing soon afterwards.

"Go. We will cover you!" the Blue Gatekeeper spoke.

"Thanks, but why are you helping us?" I had to ask.

"That asshole was keeping all of our rewards for himself!" the Red Gatekeeper shouted. "When we were given this job, we were promised benefits that never came."

"When we saw your band bring down the Overseers," the Yellow continued, "…we also saw the refusal of the Overseers to give way. We just knew that the Warden would refuse to honor his end of the bargain when it came to anything, so we decided he had to suffer, made our way here and here we are."

"Now listen, before he wakes up," the Blue resumed. "The elevator to the Warden's secret room is behind a bookcase, but you need to enter in a code. Try angling the books in this order precisely: Red 4, Cyan 9, Green 3, Purple 6, Blue 1, Yellow 7, White 2, Black 8. If you get the order wrong, the books will reset. Oh, and can you give us some of the wealth you find there?"

Looking around the Warden's office, I saw what the former Blue Gatekeeper was referring to: There was a bookcase with eight shelves, each full with books numbering 1 through 0 on their spinal columns, and being color coded by row, with black, red, purple, blue, cyan, green, yellow and white rows in ascending order of height. I tried the combination suggested by the former Blue Gatekeeper, tilting back the red book with the number 7, then proceeding from there to tilt the others. Eventually, the eight books were tilted, and the bookcase retracted into the wall before opening away from us in much the same way a door would.

"That should lead you to the Warden's secret chamber," Red told us. "We heard rumors about it, and Blue managed to find the code after a bit of digging, but we don't know what treasures he has inside there."

"Oh, I think we know," Carnivore spoke. "We recently discovered that the Void is a space station. This 'secret chamber' is probably the bridge."

"Damn it!" Yellow spat. "I wondered why there was no exit out of this place! Bring it down like a bolt of lightning, will you?"

"We were going to do that anyway," Rebecca told them as the three of us entered the Warden's secret passage. Arriving there, we found an elevator. This must have been what his 'Master Key' was for, so I inserted it into the elevator card slot. Once the elevator opened, we inserted the card into another slot, yet the only other options that appeared aside from 'Office' were 'Reactor' and 'Control', both situated above the office, supposedly the highest point in the Void. We settled on pressing 'Control' and were taken up to a small chamber. Now when I say 'small' I mean 'around the size of our Cells'. There were four cardinal points to the chamber. One featured our lift, while the others featured chairs, computers and screens. At the very center of the room was a chair by itself.

"Take a look and see what you can find," Carnivore spoke. Doing so, I found a joystick at the far end computer, labeled N, along with what might have seemed like a throttle gauge. I quickly relayed my findings to my friends.

"Looks like I've found some sort of navigation console," Rebecca relayed, by a console marked W. "It looks like it has options to set Navigation Points, and also relays which position above Earth we are. It looks like we are right above Neo Domino City."

"How convenient," Carnivore reported by a computer marked E. "What I've got here looks like it reroutes energy to different thruster regions."

"Oooh, Carnivore, I don't mean to brag, but when I was young, I had faith in my typing skills!"

"Interesting, Rebecca. I didn't know you had skills other than seducing Void prisoners. I think we'll need your speed for operating the thruster regions. Get on the E console."

"What about the Central chair?"

"It looks like that is just a captain's seat. Probably used by the Warden while his cronies operate the others. It isn't important. However, seeing as I'm probably the only one physically strong enough, I'll take the pilot seat."

"Okay, so I'm on the navigation, then." I stated, but as soon as I moved to take my place, I felt a hand on my arm. I turned to see who had grabbed me there, and found Carnivore, only she was quite close to me this time such that it was only one small step that marked the distance.

"Not just yet, Toby," she told me. "In case this doesn't work, although I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad to have known you and Rebecca."

"Thanks, Carnivore. I can hardly believe it myself; about a year and a half ago you were calling me an irritant, shoving me around, pushing me away and staying distant from 'Succubus' as you called her."

"I think I said then that irritants have a way of getting under your skin. What I didn't realize until now was that such irritants may actually become essential to your life; case in point a year and a half ago."

"What about that?"

"Do you remember your rebellion?"

"Where I was taken over and drained other people's Psychic Powers?"

"The same. Before then, I didn't see much point to open rebellion against the Void, thinking it quicker just to grin and bear it. But the way you tried to resist this place, even before being taken over by that mist, slowly got me thinking. When you finally snapped and attacked the guards, it made me realize that I was going about things all wrong."

"How… so?"

"I was just stagnating, Toby. Just letting my life rot away in my cell in the blind belief that they'd release me from this place given enough time, and that I just needed to survive. When you and what took you over openly revolted, it made me see that I was never going to get release. The guards and Warden would have just kept me in the space station, just like they tried to do to you. When you returned to normal, I knew we all had to do something to escape, which is why I suggested the War. So thank you, Toby, for making me see the truth and for giving us all the strength to bring this place down."

"Car…ni…vore…" I gasped, as she sat me down in my seat.

"Yuina. Yuina Woods."

"What?"

"I remember you wanting to know my real name when we first met. My name is Yuina Woods, and that name is something I only let _very_ close people know. I have just one price for giving you that information, though, but think of it also as a further thank you for waking the _true_ me up… close your eyes."

Doing so, I suddenly started feeling her hands on my cheeks. A few seconds after, I felt what must have been lips press against my own. Whatever it was, it was warm. I was actually leaning back due to the pressure Carnivore- no, Yuina's body was exerting, which meant that she must have been leaning forward. For some reason, the sensation of something being pressed against my lips was very relaxing. This was one of the few good things to happen to me while I was in the Void. Whatever it was, whatever Yuina was doing, it was one of the only things to happen to me that I _didn't_ want to end. It was warm, it was soft, it was reassuring, it was welcoming, it was relaxing, it was so many other things that I just cannot remember it in its entirety. All I really knew about that moment was that it was bliss.

"No fair! I wanted to do that first!" Rebecca sighed.

Pressure on my eyes motioned me to open them, whereupon it was what I thought it was. Car- Yuina's eyes were also slowly opening, and it turned out that it was indeed her lips pressed against mine. After her eyes completely opened, she broke the kiss and leaned in towards my ear, whispering "You ready?"

"Yes," I whispered back. She stood up at that point, and took her place at the piloting controls. I, meanwhile, turned my chair around to face my controls.

"Okay, you two, now we crash this fucking prison! Toby, select a landing zone!"

"Locating an area now…" I fussed with the controls, looking for the perfect spot to crash. A few minutes later, I found it; just to the west of Neo Domino City. "Feeding you the coordinates."

"Received. Navigation system starting up!"

I could also see a holographic view of the satellite in mini by my console. From what I saw, three rings of energy appeared, seemingly circling on fixed pivots, as if to form a sphere around the whole satellite. The rings stopped together at a right angle to the satellite, and two of them split off in opposite directions such that, in time, one ring was hovering at the top of the satellite, and the other at the bottom.

"Activating re-entry protocols. Heat shields operational! I've got the nav computer guiding us through the re-entry bullshit!"

The screens at my terminal were starting to change, as if we were moving at an angle. The rings in the hologram also seemed to be going up, as if the satellite was descending through them. After a few minutes, it sounded like things were getting hot. The hologram satellite was bursting into flames, and I could somehow feel an alternate gravity source pulling me into the side of my chair. This continued for a few more minutes, until.

"According to the computer, we have achieved re-entry into the atmosphere without any trouble," Yuina reported. "We are now slowly descending. How far are we from our target, Toby?"

"Looks like we are about eight hundred kilometers due east," I relayed.

"Roger that. Rebecca, full power to the Starboard thrusters and aim them west. Toby, relay to me how far we are from the target."

Soon after that, the holographic satellite showed large fires coming from the right hand sides. "Distance to target, six hundred and fifty kilometers… five hundred… four hundred… three hundred and fifty… two hundred… one hundred."

"Divert power to the Portside thrusters."

"…ninety five… eighty… sixty… fifty… forty… thirty… twenty… we are now directly above the target, at eighty kilometers in the sky," I relayed again.

"Full power to the stern thrusters, Rebecca! It's time we finish this!"

From there, I could somehow feel the force of the descent. Yuina had probably increased the speed to maximum, because I found myself struggling to remain in my seat and not float into the air, and that was with the provided seatbelt.

"Divert all power to bow thrusters!" Yuina suddenly shouted. The bottom of the holographic satellite, I saw, burst into flames as the flames at the top ceased. Just as the vertical distance to the target I had set equaled 0, there was a large physical shockwave that seemed to shake the entire space station. That shockwave blanked out my vision such that I could only see a white flash of light… the same white flash of light that the small light of hope had grown to glow.


	26. Chapter 26: Return of fury

Chapter 26: Return of fury

These events I have archived, because at the time I didn't know how my time in the Void was going to end. I wanted to record them in case I couldn't live to tell the tale. But now, with the Void having been crashed by us into the border of Neo Domino City, I felt as though my life was going to have some color again. Not just a black existence like my entry into the Void, nor a gray existence where I fought to attain some hope, nor like my white existence where we put that hope into action, but a polychromatic existence where anything is possible.

"Toby, where is the nearest deck to ground floor," Rebecca asked me. Taking a look, I found that the holographic satellite had been buried about halfway into the ground.

"I'd say Cellblock 9," I said after using the console to check the damage in more detail. The only room that couldn't be seen was the bottom observatory; everything else above seemed to have survived.

"Okay… disabling all thrusters in the starboard area around starboard bow. Custom… focusing… thrust… on single thruster… there. Carnivore, give me full power!"

I turned around to see Yuina force the throttle control forward all the way. I saw that Rebecca's computer screen started to give a warning about too much energy output, and soon, there was a large explosion in the side of my holographic satellite.

"Perfect. Isolating the exploded circuits now, and shutting off the areas of internal damage. Now we should have a perfect exit

Soil started collapsing in the hologram, piling into the large crack, with large chunks of earth bashing into the hull. It somehow formed the perfect ramp from the satellite into Neo Domino City, at enough of an angle to walk on.

"Now we've got one final job, in the area of about Cell 09E10" Yuina announced. We left the area, still with the Warden's Master Key, seeing no sign of the Warden, Gatekeepers or Overseers, and this time we descended all the way to our cells without much resistance from the guards. Once we had collected our possessions, we met up at Cellblock 9. Making our way to the aforementioned cell, we found the hole that we had created. It was now filled with loose soil level to the floor almost. I was then prompted to Summon Uria and tell it to attack the dirt.

As my Uria kept incinerating the dirt, I moved the blast ever so slowly forward. Yuina had me keep this up for at least three hours, after we waited another two hours.

"Good, the soil should be hardened enough for us to walk on it without falling through," she continued. The three of us walked on the solidified earth, whereupon I noticed some sort of glow from my left hand… a red glow. When I looked, there was nothing. Yuina and Rebecca reported yellow and blue glows respectively from the same area, but we agreed it was maybe just the light and we soon made our way to the outskirts of Neo Domino City. At last, we were free of the Void!

Upon seeing where we had ended up, Rebecca grew even more ecstatic; we were by a shoreline. She quickly ran towards the sand, shouting "At last! A real beach!", with us struggling to keep up with her. Once we arrived, she threw off her black jumpsuit and lay in the sand with a pair of sunglasses on her face.

"Rebecca," I panted, out of breath after all that running. "…are you alright?"

"Alright? I'm fucking marvelous, Toby. There's a real sun, a real beach, and I can finally be out of those repressive black pieces of shit that pass as clothing!"

"Come to think of it, I could actually use a rest after all of that." After that, I collapsed on the sand next to Rebecca, with Yuina lying down right next to me. I had to say, since finding out her true name, I've felt much more comfortable calling her Yuina than Carnivore. For some reason, calling people by titles didn't really appeal to me unless they were just acquaintances.

Oh, the beauty of that time. I had forgotten what it was like to have the sun beating down upon you, to feel the warmth provided by the star. I also really missed the sea breeze such that I found pleasure just by feeling the wind on my skin. The Void was so devoid of all of these things; warmth, light breezes, soft soil, that I had almost forgotten what they'd felt like.

A while later, however, we all decided to head into the city. One of the first things we came across was someone from Sector Security, I think his name was Trudge, asking us for an ID. Upon doing what he said by showing him our Void access cards, we had the poor guy take us clothes shopping, because we all badly needed some new clothes. For me, it wasn't such a big problem; most of mine could probably still fit as I had only grown a year and a half. Yuina and Rebecca, however, were another story. Those two had spent more than five years in the Void, so almost nothing of what they had fitted them except for the jumpsuits.

After a few hours of shopping, we came away with some fresh, new clothes. I had Trudge buy me, among other things, a few sets of long pants, as well as some shorts, followed up with eight royal blue shirts. Yuina came out of this with a dark-brown colored blouse, as well as a set of long khaki pants, both of which she began wearing when she had Trudge buy them. As for Rebecca, she seemed to go for a white, knee-length skirt, with a scarlet top, true to her surname 'Scarlet', also buying a beach-umbrella, some sun-tan lotion and a beach towel. As for Trudge, all he got out of this was a possible need to explain why at least forty thousand yen had gone missing from the Neo Domino Treasury. Poor guy, but during certain times you have to do what you have to do.

From there, we had this 'Trudge' fellow treat us to a proper meal. For this, he took us to Café la Geen, and the three of us promptly ordered one cup of Blue-Eyes Mountain Coffee… each.

"Nooooo!" Trudge shouted out, maybe half the area hearing him. I saw his arm suddenly twist around his back and heard him yell "Owww!" as Yuina pleaded in a mock-desperate voice "Please sir, we have gone long without any sustenance, and we need something to drink. Pretty please… before I break your arm and drink your blood!" the last part I could hear being said in a menacing whisper.

From there, we didn't really have any further problems. When the coffee came, I was so excited. Once I put the liquid to my lips, I rejoiced. Finally, I wasn't having black sludge! We proceeded to have a slice of cake each to celebrate the escape from the Void, and by the time we had finished, we had successfully depleted a further 15000 yen from the Treasury. I could tell that Yuina was really enjoying coercing Trudge, though. Personally, I was enjoying just the freedom away from that dreadful place.

"Trudge," a voice spoke up. Turning to look at the source, I saw an unfamiliar face with spiky blonde hair dressed in a white outfit.

"Good timing, Jack Atlas!" Trudge yelled out. "Perhaps you can help me stop these three people from extorting me an-not agaaaaaaaain!" the second part coming out as Yuina twisted his arm behind his back

"Listen, Mr. Atlas," Yuina spoke in a fake-fearful voice, "…I don't know what he means by extortion! He's been willingly treating us to some food."

"You would be much easier to believe if you weren't holding his hand behind his own back," this Jack person sighed. Just then, I caught sight of something, and it made my blood boil. Rebecca must have noticed what I saw as well, because she repeated that person's name. His clothes were strange, with them being brown overalls, but his face was unmistakable; green eyes, reddish-brown hair that terminated in the front with a large curved fringe… Sayer, the leader of the Arcadia Movement.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my Deck light up with a purple-ish pink light. A voice spoke up inside my head that I never expected to hear again. Pure rage filled my head; rage for him sending me away to the Void in the first place, rage for lying to me, rage for deceiving me, rage for torturing me over such a long period of time. I felt the need to erase him from the world, and that was when the voice started speaking. "Yes. Wither his flesh, feast on his power, drain his soul, consume his very essence, devour his spirit!"

"I didn't think a rat would return from that place," Sayer spoke once he approached.

"Leader of the Arcadia Movement… I will make you pay!" I spoke.

"For what?"

"For condemning me… and so many hopefuls who just wanted a home… to the Void… away from their families… into a world of torture!"

"You were too weak, as was everyone else sent there. You were entirely useless to the Arcadia Movement."

"In that case… I will destroy all of the 'useful' Duelists… of the Arcadia Movement… starting with their leader!"


	27. Chapter 27: Fight against Arcadia part 1

**Author's note:** Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards.

* * *

Chapter 27: Fight against Arcadia part 1

Sayer accepted my Duel, and opted to go first, summoning Krebons (1200/400 Level 2) and placing a card face-down. "By going first, I can't attack in the opening turn," he stated. I had the strangest feeling then; it felt like I was finally waking up after a long sleep.

As a result of this, after I drew my card, I yawned and rubbed my eyes. After shaking off this feeling of sleep, I felt a beautiful feeling of the need for vengeance coursing through my veins. My Duel Disk had also changed to resemble that one blade-like form extending from the dark blue crescent I used so long ago. I placed three cards face-down, summoned my Bowganian (1300/1000) and used my **Advanced Machine Duplication**, targeting a monster with 1500 or less ATK and Special Summoning two more from my Deck, in this case my Bowganian. However, I couldn't activate Trap Cards the turn they were Set, so I ended my turn.

On Sayer's turn, he played Emergency Teleport, allowing him to Special Summon a Level 3 or lower monster from his hand. This way, he summoned the Level 3 Mind Protector (0/2200), which he then proceeded to tune with the Krebons Tuner monster to Synchro Summon Magical Android (2400/1700). His following move involved a Normal Summon of Psychic Snail (1900/1200) and activation of its ability; He paid 800 Life Points to select one Psychic-type monster he controlled: that monster could attack twice during each Battle Phase. This also activated my face-down **Aura of Life Transfer**, moving the Trap to the Field Spell Card Zone, surrounding us in a purple/pink mist and causing me to take his payment of Life Points as an addition to my own, putting him on 3200 and me on 4800 Life Points. In addition, it caused a green mist to evaporate from his body and fly towards me in a stream, turning cyan, then blue along the way. After that, however, came his face-down Battle Teleportation, allowing him to select one monster and give it the right to attack directly, choosing Magical Android.

From there, he targeted me for a direct attack with his Magical Android, but I revealed my Nightmare Mirror, discarding my last card to negate the attack and deal him 1000 damage. As he was reduced to 2200 Life Points, mine rose to 5800 and again, green mist evaporated from him, turned blue, and streamed towards me. Magical Android, however, had a spare attack in reserve, so I activated my Nightmare Wheel when it attacked directly again to keep it where I could see it, after which he placed a card face-down to end his turn. During his End Phase, Magical Android gave Sayer 600 Life Points for every Psychic-type monster he controlled, but he also took 300 damage from each of my Bowganian monsters. All in all, he gained 1200, but lost 900, with his Life Points only ascending to 2500, mine descending to 5500, blue mist evaporating from me and streaming towards him, turning cyan, then green in the process.

I drew, and activated the card I got: Card of Sanctity, allowing both of us to draw until holding six cards. Oh, and Nightmare Wheel damaged Sayer by 500 to come to 2000, also bringing me up to 6000 Life Points and sending more green mist in my direction that turned blue as it reached me. I set one card face-down to end my turn.

Sayer drew, and summoned Telekinetic Shocker (1700/700), after which he played Double Summon to summon another Krebons (1400/800). After that, he Tributed Telekinetic Shocker to summon Storm Caller (2300/2000). The level 2 Krebons was tuned to the Level 6 Storm Caller to Synchro Summon Thought Ruler Archfiend (2700/2300). From there, he donated some of his Life Points… and Psychic powers… to me, by which I mean he played the Spell Card Psychokinesis, allowing him to pay 1000 Life Points to destroy one card on the field, choosing my **Aura of Life Transfer**. Ultimately, my Trap in the Field Spell Zone wasn't destroyed, and all that really happened was that Sayer was gasping for air with only 1000 Life Points left, while I was on 7000 and surrounded by blue mist.

"Your Trap should be gone!" Sayer panted.

"Sorry," I apologized, though not really, "My Trap, once it has been activated, cannot be destroyed by Spell or Trap Cards, so too bad for you!"

He still wasn't finished, though. He played a Psychic Sword card on his Thought Ruler Archfiend, giving it an extra amount of attack based on how much higher my Life Points were, up to 2000, making its ATK 4700. Another 500 Life Points were paid (he was now on 500 and me on 7500) to allow Thought Ruler Archfiend to attack twice during each Battle Phase, and another Battle Teleportation revealed, targeting it to allow it to attack me directly.

That was when I revealed my Cemetery Bomb, damaging Sayer by 100 points for each monster in his Graveyard. He had two Krebons, one Telekinetic Shocker, one Storm Caller and one Mind Protector, thus damaging him by 500 points, bringing him down to 0 and me to 8000, and causing more green mist to evaporate, turn blue and stream towards me. As it arrived at me, however, all of the blue mist streamed into my mouth, and I felt myself becoming that much stronger.

Sayer, on the other hand, was struggling to remain on his feet, and actually collapsed onto all fours a minute later. I couldn't believe that I had gone for so long without this blissful feeling. Yuina approached the downed Sayer, and I saw him manage to place a Psychic Sword card into his Duel Disk. The sword appeared, he grabbed for the hilt… and clenched a fist where the hilt's hologram was..

"What the hell have you done to me?" he asked.

"Well, it looks like Toby has drained your Psychic powers," Yuina informed him as she began tearing off his clothes. "Now sit still, I've got a future carcass to loot."

"What do you mean 'future carcass'?"

"Found it!" Yuina peeled a fake layer of skin off Sayer's stomach to reveal a Master Key Card, similar to the Warden's, but with the Arcadia leader's face on it. She then held up another card, which was a blank white, but had a black sphere, which usually indicates an EARTH-Attribute monster, in the center, down to the kanji and romanji for EARTH being written in the sphere. "The Warden was hiding this other card in the one arm of the Void's Captain's chair. I'm willing to bet that Sayer has hidden a similar card in the Arcadia Movement!" she continued.

"So we need to siege the Arcadia Movement? I look forward to it!" I stated. I needed to drain the powers of every one of the 'worthy' Duelists, so that they too would know the horror they inflicted upon those who just wanted people who could sympathise.

"Hold it, kid! What did she mean by you draining his Psychic Powers?" Jack Atlas shouted.

"You saw the mists in that Duel, Mr. Atlas. You saw how they became attuned to me when he took damage. All of his Psychic Powers are now mine to do with as I please!"

"Did I just hear you right? You drained all of his Psychic Powers?" another voice sounded… a young boy's voice. Turning to face it, I saw two teal-haired children, a twin boy and girl, with a woman who featured long-ish burgundy hair. I immediately recognized her as one of Sayer's right-hand Psychic Duelists, and raw anger started rising in me. The boy continued to ask how I did what I did. The other child mumbled something incomprehensible.

"What's the point in me telling you when I can just show you? Arcadia woman, I challenge you to a Duel!"

"I won't allow that!" Jack shouted, activating his Duel Disk.

"I don't care what you will or won't allow! If you insist on dueling my friend, you will have to go through me first!" Yuina stepped in, activating her own Disk.

"That still leaves me!" the boy shouted, readying his Duel Disk as well.

"Actually, I will be your opponent, bishonen-chan," Rebecca came forward, activating her Disk as well, "…and I'll also take on your cute bishojo of a companion!"

"Toby, don't you recognize me?" the Arcadia woman shouted.

"You are a majordomo of the Arcadia Movement, and I can sense that you have extremely strong Psychic Powers," I replied, activating my Duel Disk, drawing five cards after the Deck shuffle was complete. "That alone makes you my enemy!"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Someone like you, who wasn't deemed a failure, wouldn't understand! Now, I summon my Bowganian, use my **Advanced Machine Duplication** to summon two more from my Deck, place two cards face-down and end my turn."

"Toby, stop this, please!"

"Shall I consider you as having skipped your turn then, Arcadia woman?"

"Fine," she sighed, activating her own Disk. She summoned Evil Thorn (100/300) and Tributed it to inflict 300 damage to me and Special Summon two more from her Deck. My two cards activated then. The first was **Aura of Life Transfer**, moving to the Field Spell Zone and giving her the 300 Life Points she had taken from me. As this happened, I felt my strength draining slightly, as blue mist evaporated from me and streamed towards her, turning purple, then red in the process. My second card was Nightmare Tri-Mirror; since she Special Summoned monsters, I could select one monster I controlled and Special Summon an equal number of Copy tokens of that monster. After that, I was on 3700 Life Points, but with five copies of Bowganian (1300/1000), while she had 4300 Life Points and only two 100 ATK Evil Thorns. However, she played Closed Plant Gate to stop me from attacking since she controlled two monsters of the same name. Despite the fact I couldn't attack, that didn't stop me from inflicting 1500 damage to her due to the effect of my monsters, bringing her to 2800 Life Points and me to 5200. Red mist also evaporated from her and streamed towards me, turning purple, then blue along the way.

"Careful, Toby, I think she might summon out a Yubel in her next turn!" Yuina shouted from her own Duel.

There was something intriguing about the way that this woman fought, and the Duel was getting very interesting…

* * *

**End note**: I know technically, Toby's opponent's Duel Disk wasn't active when he began the Duel with her, but as far as I remember, from the original Yugioh season 4, something similar happened with Mai vs Joey where she began her turn and Joey hadn't activated his Disk, only doing so after a little persuasion.


	28. Chapter 28: Fight against Arcadia part 2

**Author's note:** Any cards highlighted in **bold** are not actual Yugioh cards.

* * *

Chapter 28: Fight against Arcadia part 2: Within the aura

With my Duel with the Arcadia woman, I had three Bowganian (1300/1000) on the field, along with two Copy Tokens of that monster, while she had two Evil Thorns (100/300) and an active Closed Plant Gate. I actually stumbled a bit after feeling the new power on the tip of my tongue as it arrived. "Wow, that is rich!" I found myself gasping. I'm not sure I was used to receiving the power as a substantial amount in such a condensed form.

My turn came, but a voice inside me urged me not to do anything, so I ended there.

The Arcadia Woman drew, and did _not_ summon Yubel, as predicted. Instead, she summoned Twilight Rose Knight (1000/1000) and used its ability to Special Summon a Dark Verger (0/1000). The Level 2 Dark Verger, the two Level 1 Evil Thorns and the Level 3 Twilight Rose Knight were tuned to Synchro Summon Black Rose Dragon (2400/1800). Its effect then activated, destroying all cards on the field when successfully Synchro Summoned, with the Arcadia Woman shouting "Black Rose Gale!"

All five of my Bowganian monsters were lost, but my Trap in my Field Spell Zone remained, even as my opponent was without any monsters.

"How did your Trap card survive?" she asked.

"If you saw my Duel with your oh so precious leader, you will know that he tried to destroy it with a Spell Card and failed. Well guess what: it's also immune to destruction by monster effects!" I retorted. "Nothing can destroy it!"

My turn came, and I played two cards. The first was the Continuous Spell Card **Sad Story – Harbingers of the Chapters**. The second was Sad Story – Sorrowful Memories. Due to my first card's effect, when I played my second card, I also Special Summoned a **Harbinger of Tragic Endings – Suffering** (0/0). This gained 500 points for each card that had 'Sad Story' in its name, bringing it to 1000. My second card forced any player who drew a monster in the Draw Phase to shuffle it back into the Deck. I also activated my Nightmare's Steelcage Spell card, stopping her from attacking for two turns.

The Arcadia Woman drew, and what she drew was a Spell Card and not a Monster Card, meaning that my Sad Story cards on the field didn't activate. She instead summoned a Wall of Ivy (300/1200) to her field and ended her turn. She had a very strange way of operating, as it was quite obvious to me that she was going to send me and my friends back to the Void if she won. I couldn't let that happen. For some reason, though, she seemed to be holding back.

I drew a Spell card as well, and played it: Sad Story – Unwavering Truth. This forced us to, if we drew a Spell Card, shuffle it back into the Deck. In addition, this Special Summoned a **Harbinger of Tragic Endings – Inevitability** from my Deck to my side of the field due to **Sad Story – Harbingers of the Chapters**. Both Harbingers, since there were now three cards with 'Sad Story' in their name, got 1500 ATK and DEF. I ended my turn there.

The Arcadia Woman drew, drawing a Trap Card and dodging my Sad Story cards again. Strangely, she just ended her turn there. After that, Nightmare's Steelcage wore off.

When it came to my draw, I also drew a Trap. I activated the Spell Card Pot of Greed that I picked up a turn ago for two cards, then activated my final Sad Story card, Sad Story – Dreadful Day. This forced each player, if they drew a Trap Card, to shuffle it back into the Deck. Due to my **Sad Story – Harbingers of the Chapters**, this also Special Summoned a **Harbinger of Tragic Endings – Victimization** from my Deck. All of my Harbingers now had 2000 ATK and DEF, and a fourth effect of **Harbingers of the Chapters** was now active: as long as I had all three Harbingers on the field, I wasn't targeted by Sad Story during the Draw Phase. However, I activated a second Pot of Greed to draw two cards, followed by Gold Moon Coin. Now, I had to hand over all cards in my hand to the Arcadia Woman, and I could draw the same number of cards I handed over. I only had my Heavy Storm and third Pot of Greed to give her, but once I handed my cards over, I activated one of the cards I drew: Card of Sanctity, giving everyone a six-card hand. I ended my turn there.

The Arcadia woman's turn came, and finally, she got hit by Sad Story. She drew Monster, and was forced to shuffle it back into her Deck due to Sorrowful Memories. The effects of my Harbingers, however, activated. 'Suffering' caused her to take 500 points of damage as she was targeted by Sad Story, 'Inevitability' banished the card targeted by Sad Story instead of returning it to the Deck and 'Victimization' destroyed a card on her side of the field that was of the same type as the card targeted by Sad Story, meaning that her Ivy Wall was gone. Now, she was on 2300, and I was on 5700 Life Points. Again, I was stunned by just how rich the power I received was. Rather predictably, she used Heavy Storm to destroy all four Sad Story cards and reduce the attack of the Harbingers to 0. She ended her turn there, presumably in the vain hope that I'll surrender and return to the Void quietly.

I drew, and I got the card I wanted. Since I had fulfilled its activation requirement of having **Aura of Life Transfer** in play, I activated the Ritual Spell Card **Soul Draining Ritual**, sacrificing my three Level 4 Harbingers to Ritual Summon my strongest card, the Level 12 **Haisui Kiri no Hime** (0/0). Basically, imagine a pure, snow-white-skinned princess with waist-length purple hair, dressed in a reddish-pink gown, emanating a dark purple/pink aura. Another thing was, as long as I had **Aura of Life Transfer** in play, it couldn't be destroyed or have its effects negated.

"Toby. At last, you have summoned me," the monster spoke, in the same voice that I kept hearing inside my head. "Now that you have done so, I can fully protect you to my last breath from those who would seek to see you oppressed."

The Arcadia woman drew again, summoning another Wall of Ivy, and Tributing it to summon Rose Tentacles (2200/1200). She attacked my monster, but it's ability activated: since it was targeted by a monster, the attacking monster lost attack and defense equal to half its original attack and defense, and mine gained that as its own attack and defense, an ability called 'Soul Draining'. With that, Rose Tentacles was now (1100/600), as was my monster. She used the Pot of Greed I handed to her, used Double Summon for an extra Normal Summon, summoned Copy Plant (0/0) in defense mode, and, since it was a plant-type Tuner, Special Summoned a Dark Verger in her Graveyard.

My turn came, and I attacked the Rose Tentacles with **Haisui Kiri no Hime**. Normally, it would have been a draw, but this card was disallowed from dealing any damage short of a direct attack. Instead, I shouted 'Soul Draining', activating the ability to reduce Rose Tentacles' ATK and DEF by half of its original ATK and DEF. A second part of the ability activated; if a monster has its ATK reduced to 0 by this effect, it is sent to the Graveyard with a Soul Drain Counter, meaning that now my monster could use her monster's abilities as if they were its own. It stats were (2200/1200). I ended my turn there.

The Arcadia woman used her turn to summon her Violet Witch, and made the level of Copy Plant equal that of Dark Verger. With that, she Tuned the Level 4 Violet Witch and the now Level 2 Copy Plant, now having Synchro Summoned Splendid Rose (2200/2000). She still attacked my monster. Again, its ATK and DEF were halved and added to my own monster, making mine (3300/2200) and hers (1100/1000). She ended her turn with a face-down card.

I drew, played Foolish Burial to send a monster in my Deck to the Graveyard, and the ability of the Rose Tentacles with the Soul Drain Counter in the Graveyard allowed my **Haisui Kiri no Hime **to attack one additional time for each Plant-type monster my opponent controlled. Again, I drained Splendid Rose of its power, this time sending it to the Graveyard with a Soul Draining Counter on it, meaning that I had gained its abilities and my monster was now (4400/3200). With my first additional attack, I drained Dark Verger of 500 DEF, and with my second additional attack, I drained the last 500, destroying it and coming out with my monster as a (4400/4200). Finally, I activated the ability of Splendid Rose that **Haisui Kiri no Hime** drained: I could remove one plant-type monster in my Graveyard from play, choosing the Lord Poison I got rid of using Foolish Burial, to halve my monster's ATK and grant it an additional attack to, this time, attack directly with its Draining Fury attack. Now, with 2200 points of damage going at the Arcadia woman would have put her on 100 Life Points and me on 7900. However, she activated the Trap Card Nutrient Z, gaining 4000 Life Points before damage calculation, and losing 2200 of those instead, and gaining the remaining 1800 of those to form a total of 4100, bringing me down to 3900 and severely weakening me as blue mist streamed from me towards her, turning red along the way.

The Arcadia woman drew, summoned Witch of the Black Rose (1700/1200) and used its effect to draw one card on condition of destroying her monster if the card drawn wasn't a monster. She drew Rose Fairy (600/1200), which was Special Summoned since it was drawn by a card effect. Her third action was the card Fragrance Storm, destroying her Plant-type Rose Fairy to draw one card, revealing it if it was a Plant-type Monster card and, if doing so, drawing one additional card. Her first card drawn by this effect was another Rose Fairy, which was Special Summoned, and I think the second card was what she played next.

"Toby! Please! Open your eyes!" she shouted. For some unknown reason, tears were trailing down her face. She played the Field Spell Card Black Garden, which in turn was destroyed, but triggered the destruction of my Trap card in the Field Spell zone and the normalization of our Life Points.

"No! **No!**" I could hear my monster shouting as the purple/pink mists faded away. "My power… is draining! I'm sorry, it doesn't look like I can do much more!" I could see that the aura of light around her was fading, and with the Aura gone, it could now be destroyed or have its effects negated. The Arcadia woman then used the Spell Card Shining Rebirth, essentially Synchro Summoning a monster from her Graveyard, tuning the Level 3 Rose Fairy and the Level 4 Witch of the Black Rose to resurrect her Black Rose Dragon (2400/1800). The 'Black Rose Gale' effect of that monster activated, destroying all cards on the field, but due to Shining Rebirth, it itself would not be destroyed this turn. With that, and a scream from my monster, **Haisui Kiri no Hime** was destroyed. Upon its destruction, the last ability of my monster activated: the destroyer could draw one card for each Soul Drain counter on a monster. This resulted in the Arcadia woman drawing 3 cards, as 3 monsters were affected.

I actually felt devastated by that. Although I didn't realize until its reappearance, I knew that, somehow, this creature was always protecting me, ever since I got my Psychic Powers. It was my Guardian Angel, essentially. It protected me from the abuse of all of those people. I would often call on its company when I suffered. I don't know why I forgot until its destruction. But now, with it gone, I felt defenseless, as if the whole world was now going to… I don't even want to think about it. She played Wonder Clover, discarding Lord Poison from her hand to have her dragon gain an extra attack during the Battle Phase. Once that was done, proceeded to attack me directly with her Dragon's Black Rose Flare, bringing me to 1600 Life Points, but since my Trap was gone, her Life Points remained at 4000. Finally, she used her dragon to attack me directly a second time.

The blast from the second attack actually sent me flying back until I collided with something. Everything was quite fuzzy from then, my vision blurred such that I didn't know what was going on. All that I knew was that something bad was going to happen to me soon now that I had lost. I not only lost the Duel, but I also lost the one thing that protected me. When everything came back into focus, I found the Arcadia woman standing over me, yet strangely, there was a glowing red mark on her right arm. It vanished, but then her back glowed with that same red color as she knelt down over me.

"No… no… don't…" was all that I could say. I was, somehow, left too weak to put up any act of resistance against the inevitable punishment that would follow, and I could feel tears flowing down my cheeks, symbolic of the pain I would soon feel.

"Toby… please… remember me," the Arcadia woman sobbed. For some reason, she was also crying. I didn't understand; wasn't she the one who was going to visit a whole world of pain on me now that I had lost?

* * *

**End note:** I'd say inspiration for Toby's main monster in this chapter (Haisui Kiri no Hime) came from the aftereffects of Duels using the Aura of Life Transfer Trap Card, where the Psychic Powers were drained. 1 found it also an interesting concept, to have a monster that, by itself, doesn't have any major strengths to speak of, but instead drains the strength of others and uses those against them. The monster's name is intended to mean 'Princess of Draining Mists'


	29. Chapter 29: Realization of loss

Chapter 29: Realization of loss

"Toby… please… remember me…" were the last words the Arcadia woman spoke when she acted. My vision was blurred again due to the tears in my eyes. I felt hands on my cheeks again, soon feeling what were also unmistakably lips pressing against my own. Amongst other screams, I also heard a roar, saw a… dragon dive towards me, and I was engulfed in crimson flames. I could suddenly see new memories entering my mind. A thought had also entered my mind that I had always had these memories, I just forgot them somehow.

Memories that were streaming into me included, to name a few, celebrating Misty's birthday with her, viewing the excellent grades on my report card, with distinctions in Practical Spell Card Dueling (only really marked down on Equip Spell Cards) and Practical Trap Card Dueling, Misty congratulating me on the discovery of my Psychic Powers, Misty celebrating my birthday with me, me meeting up with the woman I had just Dueled and asking for advice on how to become like her.

How could I have forgotten her? I looked up to her. I idolized her. I actually dreamed of being with her, even if just as a friend! As the crimson flames passed over me, I was also rejuvenated, but I was left speechless and horrified: I had just tried to drain the powers of someone who was once my idol, Akiza Izayoi, the very same person who now had her lips pressed firmly against mine.

As soon as she broke away, the crimson fires stopped burning and revealed the world around us once more. "A…ki…za," I found myself whispering, almost unable to speak.

"What happened to you, Toby?" she asked, wiping away both her tears and mine.

"So… sorry. Please… forgive me… I thought… you… an enemy."

"It was that monster you summoned during your Duel," a voice spoke to me. Looking up, I saw a large blue, fairy-like Dragon. "That spirit is one of the most dangerous beings ever born."

"What… do you mean?"

"That spirit used people in the past. She entered the souls of humans, although it is unknown why she does so, but her hosts have been led to commit serious crimes. I could sense during your battle that she had taken your mind, and was inflaming your emotions of hatred towards those that harmed you."

"This spirit, what is she… capable of?"

"Illusions, trickery and manipulation of powers from an outside force. She is known to grant her hosts an aura that, instead of destroying life, drains it and adds it to their own, and through this aura is able to control what they see and to an extent, guide how they react. In that way, they become vessels for her actions. Although, I could sense with you, the control wasn't complete."

"How so?"

"I could sense a powerful presence fighting off her control, enough that her powers were weakened enough for her to be destroyed and you freed. The only thing capable of standing up to her is a God, however."

"That must mean… Uria. Does this mean I'm free now?"

"Yes. Normally, if her aura is destroyed, she merely retreats into the subconscious until the time is right for circumstances to provoke the host again. However, if she were to be destroyed in battle, cut off from her aura, her connections with the host are severed entirely."

"**Those sons of bitches!**" Yuina shouted out. "Toby, Rebecca, do either of you remember a Black Card being used during any of your torture periods in the Void?"

I tried, but all I could remember was pain. My eyes were closed at the times, so I didn't see anything. Rebecca, however, relayed that now, somehow, she remembered a Black Card being inserted into the machinery when she was tortured. She also recalled seeing a Black Card in the machine when I was tortured and I first went insane.

"What's a Black Card?" I asked.

"Here! This is the same one that was in the machine when I got to your torture chamber that day." Rebecca spoke in a rare, bitter mood, throwing me a card. It was colored in the borders like a normal Duel Monsters Spell Card, but the illustration was black… completely black. It also featured a name 'The Black Card', with the effect of 'Shuffle your opponent's Deck, call the card type of the top card (Monster, Spell, Trap) and reveal it. If you call it right, return this card to your hand instead of sending it to the Graveyard. Banish the card revealed by this effect.' If I was reading the effect right… if, say, the Deck represented the memories that I had…

"So, my memories were erased?"

"Yes. That was probably why the girl recognized you, but you failed to recognize her. I still can't believe I didn't realize sooner that the Black Card was the source of our forgetfulness. Although, you say you found yourself waking from a nightmare that year?"

"Yes. I think that… spirit… or whatever it was blocked out the pain. As the pain reached its peak, I woke up in that illusory world."

"I'm guessing, then, that they tried to use the Black Card to make you forget something, but the spirit instead used its power to make you forget about the Void and convince you that you were at home, hence why you thought we were a dream and why that illusion was broken when we destroyed your Field Spell. Although one other thing I noticed was that the machinery had exploded by the time I got there, so I'm guessing that she also used the energy for torturing you to instead blow the equipment up right in their faces."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So I had been manipulated, and now I was free? Akiza was still on her knees right in front of me. I couldn't help myself; somehow finding some strength, I pulled her into a hug and tears started flowing again. I was finding all of this far too much to take in; having my memory blocked, being manipulated by an apparently malevolent spirit and almost severely harming the woman I admired. I felt a hand rest on the back of my head, but from there, I didn't know what to do.

"What in the world happened, Toby?" Akiza asked me again.

"It was terrible! The tests, the tortures, those black corridors! Now, I find my memories were stolen? Please understand that I don't want to talk about it all right now. Tell me though, did anyone here hear from Sayer about where he sent me?"

"The first time was half a year ago, when he was tricked by a friend of mine into confessing where he had taken you. Apparently, you were 'shipped off with the other failures' to a secret location, the coordinates of which were ever-changing to the extent that not even he knew. By the way, I was told to deliver a message: Your big sister loves you."

"Thanks, Akiza. Just wondering, have there been any strange crash-landings recently?"

"Today, there was a satellite that rammed into the outskirts of Neo Domino City, why?"

"That satellite was where those that Sayer called 'Failures' were sent. My companions and I only found out that it was a space station about half a year ago, and I think we were the only ones among the prisoners to find out. It was terrible there, I'm so glad we are out of that horrible, horrible place!"

"Ummm… Toby, was it? I think I see something glowing on your left hand," the boy spoke up. Looking there, I was quite surprised. There was indeed writing there, and it was glowing a red color.

"It's kanji," I spoke

"What does it say?"

"It looks like kanji for 'Flame'."

"It's strange that you don't notice things until a while later," Yuina spoke again. I could see there was a yellow glow emanating from her left hand. "Apparently, I've also got kanji, though mine is saying 'Light'. Come to think of it, I think I saw it manifest when we stepped out of the Void"

"I've somehow got glowing kanji as well," Rebecca noted from just inside the Café entrance, her left hand giving off a blue glow. "Mine says 'Oni' though. Wait a sec… maybe those cards have something to do with it."

I knew what she meant, and while still hugging Akiza, I extracted Uria, Lord of Searing Flames from my Deck (which had apparently turned back to normal along with my Duel Disk). The card seemed to be glowing the same red color as the kanji on my hand, and Yuina was experiencing something similar with Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, along with Rebecca and Raviel, Lord of Phantasms.

"Those cards, the Three Sacred Beasts, have chosen you. Those marks are proof of that," the blue fairy-like dragon spoke again. "Those three cards, the Sacred Beasts, have each been looking for a host to bond with for a very long time. Many people have come and gone, and begged for their power, but these wishes would be granted at high prices. They were sealed underneath the ground, but they could escape in the hands of someone who could truly master their powers without them causing destruction. You three, marked with their marks, are those chosen Duelists, with the power to use them at no cost to the worlds, as you seek them not for your personal gain."

"Who are you?" I had to ask.

"I am Ancient Fairy Dragon. I have to leave now, but I advise you to be careful: the wheels of a much greater struggle are in motion. You need to act soon if you are going to stop it."

With that, the Dragon disappeared. "Anyway, I'm Akiza Izayoi, formerly known as the Black Rose. Who are the rest of you?" Akiza asked.

"Rebecca Scarlet, also known as the Succubus."

"You can just call me Carnivore. I save my true name for people who deserve to hear it. Oh, and I think Toby was close to getting a Duel Title as well," Yuina informed.

"What?" I asked

"Benevolent Magician, or just 'Magician' for short."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"You win by damaging enemies, yet with the prisoners who gave you that title, you haven't launched one single attack."

"How can you win a Duel without launching attacks?" the teal-haired boy asked. "Oh, I'm Leo, by the way."

"From what I've seen of him, he's built his _true_ Deck to use as few monsters as possible. In my opinion, it's actually an art; using mostly, if not only, Spell and Trap Cards, he's given quite a number of Duelists a run for their money."

"Impossible. You can't win with only Spell and Trap Cards and no monsters."

"Says who? It can be done. The two of us have seen that."

"Maybe I can Duel him some-"

"But we have bigger problems now. That Dragon fire, or whatever it was, caught us in its blast and broke the Black Card's hold over us. I don't, however, feel comfortable with leaving the rest of the Void under the Black Card's influence. I don't care who stands in my way, I'm breaking that spell!"

* * *

**End note:** The naming of the Black Card was one thing I struggled with. I wanted something that, while giving the impression that it would blank out memories, didn't explicitly state that it would block out those memories. Aside from that, the name 'The Black Card' sounded fittingly ominous, which is why I went with it in the end.


	30. Chapter 30: Return to the Movement

Chapter 30: Return to the Movement

This new realization that memories were being sealed not only angered Yuina, but also me. Them having sealed the happy memories with my sister away was completely unforgivable, and that's saying something considering how willing I am to forgive usually. If you stole a cuddle toy from me, it wasn't really a big deal, nor was it a huge problem if you swiped my drink off the table. I can put up with a reasonable number of thefts, but memory theft was one area _way past where I draw the line!_ I wanted to go back to the Void and release the Seals just as much as Yuina did, and that meant finding the Warden again. The sun was setting, so we didn't have much time to act as we also needed to secure lodgings.

"Gatekeepers, come in!" my, Yuina and Rebecca's Duel Disks sounded. Judging by the voice, and the words used, the speakers were our predecessor Gatekeepers.

"This had better be good," Yuina warned.

"During the crash, the Warden managed to wrangle free, and we lost him in one of the hangars. We spotted a hangar bay closing after an aircraft flew out."

"Where has it gone?"

"We have just finished acquiring the flight information. It looks like it was headed towards the Arcadia Movement!"

"What about the Summon Overseers?"

"Gone too. The guards, however, are dealing with a mass uprising. Word of your actions has spread around, and the other prisoners are attacking the guards and other overseers with everything they've got."

"Can you meet up at the Arcadia Movement? I think things are about to get ugly."

"Right. You two, we're hijacking the other plane. Oh, signing off!"

"Security officer, Arcadia girl, you're coming with us!"

"Why?" I heard Akiza ask.

"Judging by the way Toby called you Sayer's majordomo, you've probably got a good idea where his office is. Now get in the officer's car."

Once we were all in, me positioned in the back between Akiza and Rebecca while Yuina rode shotgun to guide Trudge in the right direction, we took off to the Arcadia Movement. I was quite surprised to find some of the areas destroyed as we got closer. These areas, in fact, were getting more destroyed as we got close to the Arcadia Skyscraper. The only thing moving there was a plane soaring over the building, with three parachutes falling down to its roof. The plane itself looked like it was going to crash-land somewhere else, but now I'm getting distracted.

Once we arrived, we saw that the place was horribly damaged. There was debris everywhere, and there wasn't anybody around. After a while, we managed to find one working lift, and rode that all the way to the floor indicated by Akiza. From there, we were guided to a series of other corridors until we found one destroyed area. Entering it, there was a mess everywhere. The whole room was practically rubble, and there was a hole in the right wall of where Sayer's office would be. Walking through that hole, we discovered a whole stack of files, along with a computer terminal. I began looking through the files, and I saw many people's details. After some time, I even found someone who resembled the Sky Fairy quite a bit: one 'Yukino Saito'. Continuing to look through the files, I came across, in that order, Yuina Woods, Rebecca Scarlet and, eventually, me, Toby Tredwell. It hit me then, prompting me to speak. "Guys, I think everyone in these files was banished to the Void!"

"From the looks of what I'm seeing on here, it gets worse," Yuina announced from the terminal. "Come and see."

Walking over to where she was, I could see a card displayed on the monitor: the Seal of Orichalcos. The effects were quite interesting, but what shocked me the most was the part that said 'The loser's soul is forfeit to the winner'.

"That isn't even the worst part. Look at the following document," my friend continued. What I saw then was intriguing at first: if a certain card was inserted into the Ener-D reactor of the Void, the entire station would be affected. The next part was a history of the battle with a creature called The Great Leviathan, and a key part of survivor's accounts was that, in order to weaken the beast, they focused on 'powerful positive memories'. After that, it got ugly: there were notes saying that, for a resurrected Leviathan to be indestructible, the positive memories would have to be erased. There were also notes saying that as long as Sayer could keep the failures coming, there would soon be enough bodies to fill all of the Cells. All 16 Cellblocks, with 2 people per Cell, and… how many Cells per Cellblock? That led to… already I lost count of the number of people the Void could hold.

True to Yuina's predictions, things did get worse. The plans specified that, once all of the Cells were full, the Seal of Orichalcos would have been inserted into the Ener-D Reactor, all souls would have been consumed, and the Great Leviathan would have garnered enough power to be reborn and 'break the seal in which it was imprisoned'. From there, it would proceed to 'the final frontier', although details of that were sketchy. There was even a demand for Sayer to bring in more failures, as time was somehow precious, which in turn cross-referenced another document on the terminal specifying covert kidnapping operations.

What was more was that, according to the latest update, the prisoner count for the Void had reached a high number (not sure even _I_ could believe it, but it is in the thousands), also specifying that this wasn't due to the Arcadia Movement alone. There were apparently four other groups working under the Void, but the document didn't name them.

"So, you got your grubby little paws on our plans, did you?" a female voice sounded from the other side of the room. A wall had retracted there, and revealed by it were the three Summon Overseers. The one that spoke, the blue-robed, blue-haired Aoi, seemed to be looking at me with a death-glare.

"You know of our plans now. We cannot let you live. You will die by the hands of our Wicked Gods," the white-robed, white-haired Overseer Shiro continued.

"And you will also pay for your humiliation of us earlier today!" Purple-robed, purple-haired Murasaki concluded their entrance.

"You will have to go through the three of us first!" a fourth voice shouted from behind us. When I turned to look, I saw the former Gatekeepers. The blue Gatekeeper tackled Shiro, with the yellow tackling Aoi and the red tackling Murasaki. "Magician! Carnivore! Succubus! Black Rose! Go! Angustia must be further in!"

Bypassing the pinned Overseers, we ran into a lift. Using Sayer's access card, we opened it and, after Yuina, Rebecca and I entered, looked at the only other option: Penthouse. Selecting it, the lift closed, and we began moving upward, though it felt somewhat slow and clogged.

"We won't have much time," Yuina spoke in the lift. "The Gatekeepers can only hold back the Overseers for so long. Their Decks, from what I've seen, are nothing without the Sacred Beasts."

"Does that mean that only one of us can Duel the Warden?" I asked, downhearted. I couldn't see myself winning against that kind of power alone. Then again, after knowing what exactly he brought upon us, I didn't care how I faced him, just so long as he was made to answer in kind.

"Unfortunately, yes. Two of us are going to have to go back and hold the Overseers back from interfering in the Duel."

"Why two? There are three Over- wait, so will Akiza hold back the third?"

"Hopefully, yes."

"In that case, when you two get back down there, tell her I wish her good luck!"

"Are you saying what I think you're saying, Toby?"

"The Warden inflicted pure horror upon all of us. I cannot forgive him for what he has done! He will suffer, by my hand!" I was very close to shouting. While I was still quite scared of the Warden (to put it lightly), my fear was being surpassed by my rage.

"Toby, take this," Rebecca told me, holding out her Raviel, Lord of Phantasms card.

"Why, Rebecca? Isn't this card yours?" I couldn't believe the request.

"I can just feel that you'll need Raviel's power to beat the Warden."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Bear in mind, though, the use of Raviel comes with a price."

"What is it, Rebecca?"

"I knew you were snogged by Yuina before we crashed this thing, and I saw this Akiza girl steal another one when we were engulfed by that fire. I'm sick of people pushing in line!"

"Okay, I don't really think I'm in a position to argue, so I will try."

"In that case, you may use Raviel with my blessing, Toby-kun."

"Take Hamon as well, and don't screw up. As long as you have that card, know that I'll be by your side during the Duel," Yuina told me, holding out her Sacred beast.

"Alright. Wish me luck, everyone!" I said. I noticed that the red 'Flame' Kanji had started glowing on my left hand. I took Hamon from Yuina, and her yellow glowing 'Light' Kanji vanished. After taking Rebecca's Raviel, her blue glowing 'Oni' kanji also vanished. Looking at my own kanji, I could see it had reduced in size, and the other two had appeared in such a way as to make it look like points of a triangle.

Just then, the elevator opened, revealing a room in perfect condition, with a recently opened wall safe, computer and you-know-who. The giant of a Warden was looking directly at me, and I stepped out, ready to confront this… monster wearing the form of a man.


	31. Chapter 31: The last stand

**Author's note:** As always, **bold** cards aren't actual Yugioh cards, but cards I thought up.

* * *

Chapter 31: The last stand.

"Warden Angustia," I spoke once the elevator doors had closed.

"Toby Tredwell. I'm beginning to think I made a mistake putting you with the Carnivore," he responded. "But that doesn't mean my plan will stop."

"Why not?"

"Records were transmitted half a year ago of the collapse of Arcadia and the arrest of Sayer. I was, however, right to think of him as not foolish enough to give up his Blessing Card."

"What do you mean 'Blessing Card'?"

"What point would there be in telling a twerp like you? You cannot understand the glory of our purpose!"

"What the hell is 'our purpose' anyway?"

"But now, with Sayer gone, I will re-establish the Arcadia Movement to fulfill both his and my part of the plan!"

"Not if I can help it! I challenge you to a Duel!"

"Interesting. I tell you what, part of my plan necessitates that I Duel anyway, so prepare yourself!"

"Duel!" we shouted, with him by the window. I took the first move, placing two cards face-down. The Warden drew, and used Polymerization, fusing a Vice Dragon with his Mammoth Graveyard and shouting "The essence of the True Dragon is fused in the bones of all Dragons. Let the surrender of flesh and blood bring forth this essence!" to Fusion Summon **Bones of the Overseer Dragon** (2000/2000). He then played the Field Spell Temple of the Kings, allowing him to activate Trap Cards the turn they were set. From there, he played his Cursed Prison Continuous Trap Card, allowing him to Special Summon one Synchro Monster, ignoring activation requirements, in Defense mode with its effects negated. He chanted "The True Dragon's hollow body will now arise. Experience the glory now of true emptiness!" as he Special Summoned his Synchro Monster **Flesh of the Overseer Dragon** (2000/2000).

He followed that up with a Card of Demise, refilling his hand with five cards and making him discard his hand in five turns, followed by the activation of one ability of **Bones of the Overseer Dragon**: to retrieve the Ritual Spell Card **Dragon Blood Ritual**. Playing it, he Tributed a Level 8 Blue-Eyes White Dragon in his hand and chanted "As the blood of a lesser Dragon is spilled, it boils with the fury of the True Dragon!" as he Ritual Summoned **Blood of the Overseer Dragon** (2000/2000) and used its ability, adding a Level 4 or lower Dragon-type monster from his Deck to his hand. After that, he removed his three monsters from the game via the effect of the Bones (destroying Cursed Prison), chanting "The True Dragon's soul lies waiting to inhabit a worthy vessel. Now the flesh, blood and bones shall join as one to create the husk that shall contain glory. Rise, White Overseer Dragon of the Void!" as his ace monster (5000/5000) appeared.

I couldn't believe what I saw. He had summoned out his Level 12 ace monster in one turn! Not only that, but there were two dragons in his Graveyard, namely Vice Dragon and Blue-Eyes White Dragon, increasing the ATK and DEF up to 7000. He played Pot of Greed for two cards, and Card Destruction soon afterwards, forcing us to discard our hand and draw that many cards. I revealed my Disgraceful Charity, returning the cards we discarded to our hands as his ace powered up to 12000 ATK and DEF, but returned to 7000. He attacked me directly with his Dragon, but I revealed my Nightmare Mirror, negating the attack at the cost of discarding a card and dealing him 1000 damage to come to 3000. He ended his turn, after which he had to discard four cards to maintain the Hand Size Limit of 6, bringing his Dragon's ATK and DEF to 11000, since he most likely discarded four dragons.

I drew, and I was running out of options here. I set two cards face-down and ended my turn. He drew, and activated his Graceful Charity, drawing three cards but discarding two, followed by another Graceful Charity (drawing three, discarding two again) and a Foolish Burial, sending one monster from his Deck to his Graveyard. Due to those discards, I saw his Dragon power up by 5000 points. From there, he played a **Black Machine Chassis** (0/0), which apparently couldn't be destroyed by anything with less than 3000 ATK. What I saw of the monster was amazing: it was a pure-black color, with a large body, a Dragon head in the center, and two long cannons extending from its sides and facing forward. Other than that, though, it was far too big for me to get a good look at its whole body, and it was situated outside the window. From there, he attacked me directly again with his now 16000 ATK and DEF Overseer Dragon monster, annihilating me, but that was when I revealed my Rainbow Life, discarding one card to get all of that damage as extra Life Points instead, bringing me up to 20000.

I drew again, but I wasn't getting anywhere. Or was I… I had drawn Pot of Greed. Playing it, I saw my Deck glow, and as I drew, I got Uria and Graceful Charity. Playing the latter, I drew three cards, and discarded two cards from my hand. I still had one face-down Trap Card, so I set two more and sacrificed all three Trap Cards to summon Uria, Lord of Searing Flames (?/?), whose ATK went up to 8000 since there were that many Trap Cards in my Graveyard (some having gotten there by other card effects that required me to discard). I then activated my Phantasmal Martyrs to, since I had either Uria or Hamon out, Special Summon three Phantasmal Martyr Tokens. I immediately sacrificed those three to summon Raviel, Lord of Phantasms (4000/4000) drawn by Graceful Charity. From there, I Summoned my Plasma Eel (400/1200) and played my Spell Card Excalibur, doubling Raviel's attack to 8000. That was also when I activated its ability, sacrificing Uria and the Eel to give Raviel an extra 8400 ATK points to come to 16400 for this turn. That Dragon had to go, so I had the now 16400 ATK point Raviel battle with the 16000 ATK point **White Overseer Dragon of the Void**. The card was finally destroyed, leaving the Warden on 2600 Life Points. My turn ended there.

When he drew, he played a **Black Machine Reactor** (0/0) and used its ability, saying that whenever it is summoned, he could equip it as an Equip Spell Card to **Black Machine Chassis**, moving it to the Spell and Trap Card Zone. As he did this, a large spherical device with a circle of transparent material in the center of the horizontal zone descended onto the large Chassis just behind the dragon head, and I could hear sounds indicating physical connections. However, the effects of the monster it was equipped to negated the effects of the Reactor, and to further illustrate this, the scarlet light being shone from the core of this monster through the transparent material faded out until no light was coming from it at all. He, however, used a Double Summon to summon **Black Machine Circuitry** (0/0) and equip it as an Equip Spell Card to **Black Machine Chassis**. The effect of this card, however, since it was equipped to that monster, stopped other 'Black Machine' card effects from being negated by the effect of **Black Machine Chassis**, allowing those 'Black Machine' cards equipped to his monster to activate their effects. As this happened, I saw yellow lines spread all over the Chassis, causing it to glow, and the light of the Reactor started shining again.

One thing I noticed was that the more Black Machine monsters that emerged, the more I felt awful. It was like there was something wrong, making me not only physically ill, but making me think that this machine didn't belong in this world. When the Chassis came out, I was just curious as there wasn't any monster that I'd seen of it. As the Reactor and Circuitry came out, I was increasingly on edge.

From there, the effect of **Black Machine Reactor** activated, giving the Chassis 500 ATK for each 'Black Machine' monster equipped to it, this time giving it 1000 ATK. The Warden set two cards face-down and ended his turn, whereupon a second effect of the Reactor activated, giving the Chassis a further 500 ATK boost each End Phase, with the Warden stating that if it gains 2500 or more ATK by that effect, the Reactor is destroyed.

I drew (destroying the Excalibur equipped to Raviel and bringing the Sacred Beast back to 4000 ATK), and discarded a Trap Card to revive Uria. I activated my Card of Sanctity to refill our hands to six cards, and from there, I felt another strong presence. I had drawn Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/4000), so I set three Spell Cards and Tributed them to summon the Sacred Beast. My field was now full of monsters, as I had gained two Phantasm Tokens (1000/1000) from the Warden's summoning.

"The effect of the Trap I discarded activates!" I shouted. "When this card is sent to the Graveyard during my first Main Phase, during the following Battle Phase, I have to select one monster and force it to attack, ignoring all effects prohibiting it to attack. Since I had monsters on the field when Uria was Special Summoned by its effect, it normally cannot attack. Now, I can force it to attack. Go, Counter Trap Card, **Fuel for the Fire**!"

I attacked his 1500 ATK Chassis with my now 9000 point Uria, but he revealed his Draining Shield, negating the attack and instead gaining 9000 Life Points to come to 11600. Hamon was next, as if I destroyed the Chassis with that monster, he'd receive 1000 points of Effect Damage, which would total 3500 and allow me to use Raviel's ability to finish him.

However, when I attacked with Hamon, he revealed Negate Attack, stopping the attack and ending the Battle Phase. When he drew, he had this and the next turn left until he needed to discard his hand. He summoned **Black Machine Coolant** (0/0) and equipped it to the Chassis. As a result, two large, cylindrical tanks that were stuck together and featuring blue lines along the length descended onto the chassis directly behind the Reactor and connected. Now, with it equipped, the 'failure point' of the Reactor was increased to 5000 ATK instead of 2500, and once it hit 5000, it would just stop rising. The presence of this also increased the ATK of the Chassis to 2000. A Spell Reproduction came into play, discarding two Spells to retrieve one, after which came a Double Summon. That, in turn, allowed the summoning of **Black Machine Turbine** (0/0) and the equipment of the card as an Equip Spell Card onto the Chassis. Once again, the part materialized, this time being two large jet turbines with green lights, and attached to the lower body of the Chassis. This increased the ATK to 2500, and afterwards, the Warden activated another card: Pot of Greed, for two cards. The first of those cards activated: Token Thanksgiving, which destroyed all tokens on the field and gave 800 Life Points each, bringing him up to 13200.

The next card played was Hidden Passage. With this, as long as the ATK of his face-up monsters was less than my lowest ATK, he could attack me directly with one monster. For this, he chose his now 2500 ATK **Black Machine Chassis** and attacked me directly with its 'Barrel Ram' attack. There wasn't anything I could do to stop the attack, and in addition, the ability of the Turbine activated: he could choose to either attack twice, or protect the monster from Spells or Traps. The Warden opted for the former, and I took 5000 points of damage to come to 15000, with the Black Machine's gun barrel ramming into me, followed by sharp gusts of wind from the Turbines and the shards of glass flying at me from the broken window. He ended his turn with a face-down card, with the Chassis coming to 3000 ATK.

I drew, and I still couldn't do anything. I switched Hamon to Defense mode and forbade my other monsters from being attack targets as a result, and used Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy his Hidden Passage in the hope that he wouldn't be able to use it anymore. With that, I placed a card face-down and ended my turn.

The Warden's turn came, being the last one he could have before he lost his Hand from Card of Demise. He Summoned a sixth Black Machine monster, **Black Machine Processor** (0/0) and equipped it as an Equip Spell Card to the Chassis. A small chip descended into the dragon head of the Chassis, and immediately after that, its eyes glowed with a violent purple light.

"Now is where the fun begins!" he began speaking. "Normally, with the Processor, I can choose when to activate the effects of my other Black Machine monsters instead of them activating automatically. In other words, if I wish, I can choose to negate the effects of my Black Machine. But now, with my EARTH Chassis being equipped with my LIGHT Circuitry, FIRE Reactor, WATER Coolant, WIND Turbine and DARK Processor, I can remove those cards and my Chassis from play! The ground itself trembles and the sky makes way! The gift of the Horrors Beyond assembles into the ultimate Black Machine. Come forth, **Black Machine of the Void**!"

The monsters he had on the field disappeared as he said this, and outside of the Arcadia Movement, the Black Machine had grown to an even more enormous size, with thin yellow lines glowing on its body, the red Reactor light shining brighter, as was the blue Coolant light, the green Turbine light and the purple eyes of the machine. Now, it felt like this was one complete machine, and not a composite monster. Its stats became equal to the amount of Black Machine Monsters removed from play x1000, meaning it had 6000 ATK and DEF. I also gained two Phantasm Tokens from all of that, but now the trouble began: This ultimate DIVINE Machine-type Black Machine gained the effects of all other Black Machine cards removed from play.

"Now, Black Machine of the Void, attack Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder. _Void Horror Cannons_!" the Warden shouted, also using the banished Turbine's effect to attack twice. This attack launched two large projectiles toward me, created a loud enough bang to, I would guess, be heard by the whole city and a strong enough physical shockwave that an earthquake shook the building violently. I, however, activated my Soul Shield, halving my Life Points to 7500 to negate the attack and end the Battle Phase after the Damage Step, negating the second attack that way as well, with the blasts being deflected towards the ceiling and cutting straight through out of either the roof or the other wall. . He ended his turn there, choosing to gain 500 extra ATK from the Reactor to come to 6500. That Black Machine was, somehow, all too real, even for a Psychic Duel.

"Beware that machine!" I heard the spirits of my cards, specifically the Sacred Beasts, say. "It calls to horrors from beyond. It must be destroyed!"

My turn came, and a bright light emitted from the top card of my Deck. After I drew, I sensed that, somehow, I had gotten a card that would help to end this battle. I activated it on the spot: Dimension Fusion Destruction. This removed Uria, Hamon and Raviel from play to Special Summon their fused form, Armityle the Chaos Phantom (0/0), to my field. I chose to activate its effect, inflicting 10000 Battle Damage to **Black Machine of the Void**, and I could see an explosion in the gigantic machine, more specifically, in its head, after which the eyes stopped glowing purple. After that, however, it remained on the field.

"Your monster should be gone!" I shouted.

"It should be, perhaps, but it isn't," the Warden laughed. "If my Black Machine would be destroyed, I can instead return one Black Machine card from my Removed from Play Zone to my Graveyard to negate the destruction. Of course, that means its effect is lost to my monster, in this case the effect of the Processor I returned to the Graveyard, but it is still worth it!"

Seeing no other way of stalling the Black Machine's attack, which would inevitably destroy my monster, I activated my Messenger of Peace, stopping all monsters with 1500 or more ATK from attacking. He drew, but Card of Demise's drawback kicked in, making him lose his Hand, so he ended his turn, unable to attack me. His Black Machine increased back to 6000 points from 5500.

When I drew again, I paid 100 Life Points (7400) to keep my Messenger of Peace active. Again, I used Armityle's effect to deal 10000 Battle Damage to **Black Machine of the Void**, but again, a Black Machine monster was brought back into the game and placed in the Graveyard to negate the destruction, and again, there was a huge explosion on the monster, this time on the turbines. This must have meant that he returned the Turbine, aside from which, since one less Black Machine monster was removed from play, the main one's ATK was now reduced by 1000 to 5000. I placed one card face-down to end my turn.

When his turn came, I revealed my Solemn Wishes, and he played the only card in his hand: Ring of Destruction. He targeted not my Armityle, but his own Black Machine, dealing 5000 damage all round, bringing me to 2400 and himself to 6600. This time, explosions occurred on what must have been the coolant tanks, but the machine itself remained, with 4000 points. He ended his turn there since he couldn't attack, gaining 500 points from the reactor to come to 4500 ATK.

I drew, lost 100 points to maintain my Messenger of Peace, but gained 500 points from Solemn Wishes as I drew a card, bringing me to 2800. For a third time, I used Armityle's effect, inflicting 10000 Battle Damage to the **Black Machine of the Void**, this time with explosions occurring on what was most likely the reactor. As a result, the monster lost all the ATK gained from the reactor, and came down to 2000 ATK and DEF. I played my Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two. After that, I placed the last card I had face-down. Just how much health did this giant machine have?

Once he drew, he used Card of Sanctity to give everyone a six-card hand, then Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy my Messenger of Peace, and attacked with his machine. That was when I used Rescuer from the Grave from my Graveyard, banishing five cards to negate the attack and end the Battle Phase. He placed four cards face-down and used Emergency Provisions, destroying them to regain 4000 Life Points and come to 10600. Three cards destroyed were Apples of Enlightenment, allowing him to draw three cards. Two cards were placed face-down to end his turn.

I drew again, this time gaining 500 points to come to 3300. I used Armityle's ability to deal the Black Machine 10000 Battle Damage, and this time, explosions occurred throughout the chassis. The machine itself, however, still stood, albeit with 1000 ATK and DEF left. I somehow knew that the card returned was **Black Machine Circuitry**, as there were no longer glowing yellow lines around the body. I used De-Fusion to destroy Armityle, and Special Summon Uria, Lord of Searing Flames (0/0), Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder (4000/4000) and Raviel, Lord of Phantasms (4000/4000). I used Uria's Trap Destruction ability to destroy one of his face-down cards. After that, I attacked with Raviel's Shimmering Slash attack, using its ability and Tributing my two Phantasm Tokens on the field to give it 2000 extra ATK, but the Warden revealed Attack Invulnerability, choosing to take no Battle Damage from the attack. I, however, had something to say about that, revealing my Trap Jammer and negating that effect. Raviel's fist made contact, and he was down 5000 Life Points to come 5600, and his Black Machine was down to 0 ATK and DEF, with frequent explosions happening all over the giant body.

"Now, this is where your Black Machine is destroyed!" I shouted. "Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder attacks your **Black Machine of the Void**: Lost Thunder!"

With no more Black Machines to return into the game and place in the Graveyard, the **Black Machine of the Void** was destroyed, exploding in the very center with a large enough blast to, I would think, engulf the Arcadia movement and also send another shock wave through the city and further cause the buildings in the immediate vicinity to crumble. The Warden lost 4000 points from that attack, plus a further 1000 from Hamon's Hell's Punishment effect of dealing damage whenever it destroys a monster. He was left with a mere 600 points.

"Now, I attack you directly with my now 7000 point Uria, Lord of Searing Flames! Hyper Blaze!" I shouted, as the attack hit him and took off the last of his Life Points.

* * *

**End note:** This, I have to say, was a Duel I had lots of fun writing. The concept for the Black Machine is also one that I am proud of, and despite similar ideas I thought up around this new monster mechanic, I still love this one most of all.


	32. Chapter 32: The curse broken

Chapter 32: The curse broken

As his Life Points hit 0, the Warden collapsed, and I could tell he was exhausted. A card was on the floor by his downed body, and after quickly running to grab it and darting out of his reach, I saw that it was a card similar to the one Yuina found. It was with a white background, but instead of having the indicator for an EARTH monster, it had one for a WIND monster. I found that rather confusing at the time.

"You… will never… defeat us!" the Warden gasped.

"Who is this 'us' that you speak of?" I asked.

"Sayer was the… weakest… of us. His Arcadia Movement… failed. And though… I also failed… our plan… will still continue."

"Since you lost, what is your plan?"

"No light… to weaken the Great Leviathan… but it doesn't… matter anymore. The barriers… are still weak enough… that the Leviathan… need not be restored."

He seemed to have passed out from there, leaving me no information on who else he was working for. Something hit me at that point: there was a card showing the attribute of EARTH, and one showing WIND. That had to mean that there was one for FIRE, LIGHT, WATER and DARK as well. Six organizations, with two being the Arcadia Movement and the Void, but what were the other four though?

I started looking around the room, but the only thing I found was a computer chip labeled 'Instructions' and a hexagonal Duel Disk-type object with six card slots. I wasn't sure what to do with this, but then I remembered something else I was supposed to be looking for. After prodding him a few times, I concluded that the Warden was out cold, whereupon I started rummaging his pockets. I found a pocket on the inside of the first layer of upper-body clothing he wore after failing to find anything in the others, and it was out of that pocket that I pulled a card: Black Card Reverse. "Return all cards removed from play to their owner's Decks and shuffle afterwards. Each person draws one card for every Removed from Play card returned to their Deck" If that meant what I think it meant…

Fantastic. Now I had a way to do for the Void what that strange Dragon Fire did for me, Yuina and Rebecca. I was still intrigued by where I was, however, so I continued to loot, I mean search the room for anything useful. Aside from what I took, I didn't find anything more, so I proceeded back down the lift.

Waiting for me was Akiza, Jack, Yuina, Rebecca and Trudge. I immediately threw Yuina the Black Card Reverse card I picked up from the Warden, after which we all returned to Trudge's car (with the owner being 'persuaded' by my friend). A few Duel Runners had pulled in by the time we reached the car, however.

"Akiza! Are you all right," a raven-haired man shouted. Behind him was a rider with spiky orange hair.

"I'm fine, Yusei," she replied.

"Alright, enough reunions! We are going back to the Void!" Yuina shouted as we entered Trudge's car again. The sky was dark by then, and I was, to put it bluntly, exhausted.

The next thing I knew was Rebecca shaking me on the shoulders, saying that we had arrived. I still felt extremely tired, but judging by the way time passed so quickly, I must have fallen asleep. The crater was surrounded by Securities, all of whom were positioned on the footpath I helped create. Trudge ordered them to make way, after which Akiza, this Yusei person, Yuina, Rebecca and I entered into Cellblock 9, with Jack making sure nobody outside tried anything stupid.

Running through the black cellblock corridors, we reached one of the white high-level lifts, and rode it all the way to the Warden's office. Once we reached _his_ lift, we instead had it move to the Reactor level in between the office and the bridge. This level was somewhat intriguing: aside from what must have been the Ener-D Reactor, there was a card slot sealed inside a glass frame, with three key holes. This was part of a machine that was directly below the reactor. The room, like the bridge, was quite small.

"Well, well, these things finally get to come in handy," Yuina spoke, pulling out her Yellow Key. "The computer data we harvested from Sayer's secret room just happened to contain how to use the card to activate the Reactor. You two, we first need to place our keys in that first row of key holes."

She inserted her Yellow Key into the central key hole, and yellow lines spread along the seal. Rebecca followed with her Blue Key, whereupon blue lines appeared. Finally, I inserted my Red Key, with red lines appearing, and this time, the glass opened. Yuina inserted the card I handed to her into the receptacle, but nothing happened, except blue lights lit up below the screens.

"Look! There are activation keys here!" Rebecca announced, having found something to the left of the console. That was also when I looked to the right, and found a screen. I noticed that a light below each screen was previously off, and the screen was blank saying that there was no card inserted. Now, the light at my screen was on, but blue, with the words 'Card detected: Memory Block Release Key inserted.' now displayed on the screen. There was also a key hole below the light. Relaying my findings, Rebecca told me that her screen detailed the area of activation of the card. This interface supposedly included all areas of the Void, from low to high-level access.

"According to the instructions we harvested, your screen details where the card effect should target. You will need to remove your Keys and use them in those sockets you spotted to confirm. First select the areas to be targeted by the Spell, but once you turn the Key inside, know that it saves those settings from your side," Yuina resumed

"Where should I target then?"

By now, judging from what the previous Gatekeepers relayed to me, there are probably prisoners all over the place due to the riots our escape caused. Select all areas,"

"Okay. It's giving an overload warning, though."

"See if you can take some pressure off the main reactor."

"Doing that now. Rerouting to the twenty four sub-reactors. Have any other prisoners escaped aside from us, though?"

"Not from the sounds of it. The Gatekeepers told me that the guards blocked off the exit, and any others who did slip out were forced back in by Sector Security until 'they can clarify the cause of the crash'."

"I'm diverting as much stress as possible to the secondary reactors. We've still got a possibility of an overload, though."

"We will have to risk it!"

Yuina, from what I saw, removed her Yellow Key (closing the Seal in the process with our card inside) and placed it in a fourth keyhole below the Seal holes. When she turned it, a voice sounded "Chamber Sealed. Preparing Card for Activation. Please specify Area of activation," and I saw my screen produce the words 'Card armed', with the blue light now having turned green. Looking to my left, Rebecca was typing madly away at her screen, after which she also removed her Blue Key from the Seal keyhole, and inserted it into a keyhole below her screen as well.

My light turned yellow, the voice noted "Area of activation selected", and the screen noted the area of effect, from the Bridge to the Lower Observatory. My screen also had the words "Area of activation specified. Activate Card?" with the pressure indicator on the Reactors, the area of effect specified by Rebecca, the card in the seal that had been primed by Yuina and a warning that the reactors are likely to overload.

"Okay," Rebecca announced. "I've redirected all of the secondary reactors' functions to take some strain off the main reactor. The rest of the place has only got emergency power."

"Toby," Yuina continued, "now the fate of those who had their memories stolen is in your hands… fire."

I grabbed my Red Key from the Seal and inserted it into the keyhole below my screen. Turning the Key, the screen changed again, this time saying 'CARD ACTIVATING' with the light now having turned red. A holographic satellite appeared above Yuina's console, and a ring formed above it. Following that, the ring descended, the satellite passing through it, yet the power allocation was getting a bit out of control. As the ring descended through one third of the way, there were explosions at eight points of the upper third of the satellite and we felt somewhat of a shockwave.

"We've lost the first eight reactors!" Rebecca shouted. "More power is feeding through the main reactor! It's now 33% towards critical failure!"

"Not just yet…" Yuina gasped. The ring descended through the middle of the Void, but just as it hit ground level where we crashed, there were eight more explosions.

"We've lost another eight secondary reactors! Main Reactor is now 67% on its way to critical failure!"

"I summon Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, in Defense Mode. Everybody get behind it!"

The monster appeared, and the five of us retreated towards the lift. Just as we reached our target, Hamon loomed over us and encircled us with his wings. Yuina's 'Light' Kanji was glowing. I placed my left hand over hers, and my 'Flame' Kanji appeared on my hand as well, in addition to Hamon's presence feeling stronger. Rebecca also placed her left hand over mine, causing her blue 'Oni' Kanji to light up, but the next action was the most surprising of all: Akiza placed her right hand over the kanji, with a red claw-like symbol lighting up on her arm. Or was it more a talon-like symbol? Anyway, Hamon's presence felt like it couldn't get much stronger.

Just then, there were eight more explosions in the lower areas of the holographic satellite, and the voice announced "Card activation complete." That was, however, also when the Ener-D reactor this level exploded. The blast wave was tremendous such that, had it not been for Hamon, we would most likely have evaporated into various gases on the spot. The rest of the room disintegrated, with the walls blowing out from where I could see, under the Sacred Beast. As the wave hit Hamon, the monster grunted for five seconds and disintegrated, but we were protected from the shockwave. Once he was gone, though, we were greeted with a disaster area as rubble and shrapnel was strewn everywhere and everything above us was destroyed, leaving the now ruined Reactor room open to the night sky. The only thing to survive, aside from us, was the elevator.

"Okay, it looks like that's that," Yuina stated. "Not only have we run our program, but we have put the Void out of commission. Only the twelve emergency reactors should be operational, and with their power, only the lifts, cells and internal lighting will run. Even then, I give it about a week before they shut down."

We re-entered the lift, and although it was still working, it took us a bit longer to get back to the Warden's office (aside from which the bridge had been disallowed on account of the 'ERROR: UPPER SHAFT STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED'. Once there, however, we were greeted by the Gatekeeprs, Nightshade, Hunter-Killer, Beast, Dancer, Sky Fairy, Bombardier and Queen.

"Carnivore, what happened?" Beast asked. "We heard you came back, and we all wanted to rendezvous with you, yet all of a sudden, I found myself remembering events of my past. Memories from before I became known as the Beast. Happy memories."

"Yes, Carnivore, what happened?" Nightshade resumed.

"Okay, it looks like it worked," Yuina stated. She, however, found a microphone on the Warden's desk, pressed a button saying 'Void-wide broadcast' and spoke into it. "Attention everyone: You should have gotten memories back that the Void stole from you. Also note, however, that the main reactor and the twenty-four secondary reactors have been destroyed in the efforts of me, Magician and Succubus to break the blocks on your memories. Now there is only enough power provided to operate the lifts, lighting, Cell controls and basic life-support systems for a week at most. To that end, this place is now essentially destroyed, and as such, you cannot stay here. An exit has been created in Cellblock 9, through which you can leave this place and return to the outside world. Now go, your freedom awaits you!"

Turning the microphone off again, she motioned for the rest of us to follow. I had forgotten then, but Rebecca had other plans as she told the rest of them to go on ahead, keeping me back to talk. Once everyone was gone, she pushed me against the wall and lowered herself to my eye-level.

"What's wrong, Rebecca?" I was somewhat anxious about her sudden behavior.

"I told you, Toby, using my Raviel had a price: that I get what Yuina and that Akiza girl got from you. Now, I think it's about time to collect," she whispered, placing her lips against my own. It felt quite similar to the first time with Yuina, except I could feel more vigor, and quite a bit of joy. I could feel then that she was happy, and I shared a lot of that happiness with her: happiness of freedom from the Void, happiness of finding someone who would accept you, happiness of being able to return to society. I could feel that she was so happy and excited to return to the outside world especially because, during our moment, she leaned and pushed forward, causing me to slide down the wall and onto the floor. We stayed like that for a while longer, with me sandwiched between her and the carpet of the Warden's office.

Once she broke away though, she helped me back on my feet. Leaving the office, we saw Yuina at the end of the corridor: apparently everyone else had left and only the three of us were remaining. Yuina, surprisingly, seemed quite content with what just happened, but there were other concerns weighing down on us. We descended in the VIP lifts to Cellblock 9, and from there, we were greeted with a whole mass of people waiting to get out.

Although it was a black night, there was still white light beyond the opening we had made. That white light symbolized our hope… our freedom forever from the Void.

* * *

**Final End note (for now):** Although this is the end of the Void (both the space station and this particular story), it isn't the end of Toby's story. I already have a sequel planned for this, and while I won't give away major spoilers, the fight continues against these new enemies. Until then, I hope you have enjoyed, and I also hope to be back soon with the first chapter to the sequel.


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